PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – As the game clocked slowly ticked its way toward all zeroes on Tuesday night in Memorial Hall, Plattsburgh State head men's basketball coach Tom Curle was all smiles.
After all, it isn't every Tuesday that you cement your name into Plattsburgh State men's basketball history.
With an 83-60 triumph over longtime North Country and State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) rival SUNY Potsdam, Curle picked up his 205
th win as the Cardinals' bench boss, becoming the program's all-time winningest coach in the process. The win also upped Plattsburgh State's 2014-15 record to 10-4 and 5-2 in SUNYAC confrontations.
Xavier Thomas amassed a game-high 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting while senior Ezra Hodgson added 12 more to lift Curle past former career wins leader Joe Jastrab and into Plattsburgh State basketball immortality. Jastrab racked up 204 wins during his coaching tenure which lasted from 1953-69 – the second-longest stint by a Plattsburgh State men's basketball coach.
The numbers from Curle's historic victory were all in favor of the Cardinals, who held a 43.8-percent (28-for-64) to 32.2-percent (19-for-59) edge in field goal shooting and a decisive 45-33 advantage in rebounds.
Although Curle led the Cardinals (10-4, 5-2 SUNYAC) to victory, he had to withstand an early flurry of proverbial jabs from the Bears in order to do so. SUNY Potsdam took one of its two early leads when Zac Adams connected on a mid-range jumper for the game's first pair of points 21 seconds in.
Adams handed the visitors their only other lead of the night when his layup made it a 6-5 score in favor of the Bears. That lead, though, lasted all of eight seconds thanks to junior Edward Correa who dropped in his second three-point make of the night which initiated an 8-3 Plattsburgh State run over a span of 4:49.
Potsdam's final real threat was issued in the next 90 second when Tariq McIntyre and Rishawd Hendricks each put in a layup to knot matters at 13 at the midway points of the first 20-minute stanza.
Led by Thomas and junior Kyle Richardson, the Cardinals quickly put the kibosh on the Bears machinations of an upset. A 19-6 scoring spree by the home team commenced when Thomas drove along the baseline and threw down a ferocious one-handed slam dunk. From there, the Brooklyn, N.Y., product added a layup and one of his two downtown splashdowns of the night before Richardson dialed and hit from long distance to put the Cardinals on top 25-15.
Following close-range bank shots from Alan Siergiej and Shamoy McIntosh, Richardson put the finishing touches on the run with a free throw make and a fast-break layup, putting Plattsburgh State ahead 32-18 with 5:01 to go in the first.
An 8-2 spurt from the Bears which featured a pair of triples from Joe Estramonte shrank the Cardinals' edge to eight before the first half came to a close, but that was as close as Curle and his squad would allow the visitors to come for the remainder of the evening.
From the first throw-in of the deciding frame, the Cardinals simply laid waste to the Bears. Through the first 10:31 of the final 20-minute period, Plattsburgh State only allowed their North Country nemeses to sling in seven points on 3-for-20 shooting from the field. Those same offensive woes, though, certainly didn't apply for Curle's hot-shooting home squad.
Hodgson and Correa took turns shelling the Bears from three-point land as the former opened the frame with a pair of deep trifectas before the latter added his third and final of the game. All in all, a total of seven Cardinals recorded scores during a 25-7 stretch which put the home team on top 65-37 with 9:29 remaining.
With the contest well in hand, Curle used the opportunity to substitute liberally and see some of his younger players take the reins for a while. First-year man Tyler Coppin-Carter netted four points during the final portion of the second half while fellow freshman Majestic Grigg added six markers of his own on 3-for-3 shooting to go along with four rebounds.
Senior point guard Mike Mitchell accounted for six of the Cardinals' 18 assists while fellow final-year man Reggie Williams finished with six points, eight rebounds and three of the Cardinals' eight blocked shots.
Adams finished as the high-point man for the Bears with 13.
Another road excursion deep into enemy territory is what the Cardinals have in store next. Friday night will see the Cardinals travel to SUNY Geneseo to do battle with the Knights and the nation's top rebounder in Gordon Lyons. The SUNYAC fracas is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.
