BROCKPORT, N.Y. – The last two trips to The College at Brockport's home basketball arena are ones the Plattsburgh State men's basketball team would just as soon forget.
After hanging tough with the defending SUNYAC champions for one half, the Cardinals were outscored 45-27 in the second half of a 71-52 loss to the Golden Eagles on Saturday afternoon.
Plattsburgh State falls to 11-5 and 6-3 in SUNYAC play while the Golden Eagles moved up to 8-8 and 5-4 in league bouts. The Cardinals suffered from one of their worst shooting nights of the season, connecting on just 33.3-percent (15-for-45) of their field goals. Saturday's game marked the rematch of the 2013-14 SUNYAC Championship Game in which the Cardinals finished as the runners-up in the conference for the second-straight campaign.
Shamoy McIntosh, who gained entrance to the program's 1,000-point club last night, fired in a game-high 19 points for the Cardinals while Edward Correa added 12 for the Cardinals who lost the rebounding battle 38-32 and committed 16 turnovers.
In order to improve to 8-8 and 5-4 in the SUNYAC, Brockport employed a scalding 16-for-29 (55.2-percent) touch from the field through the final 20 minutes of action.
Aiming to exorcise any and all bad memories associated with the Jim & John Vlogianitis Gymnasium as a result of their previous tilt in the facility, the Cardinals wasted little time in building up one of their largest leads of the tilt.
An 8-2 run to begin the game was sparked by junior long bomber Edward Correa who drilled a pair of three-balls while senior Reggie Williams added a layup. From there, though, Plattsburgh State would register just five more field goals through the opening 20-minute frame.
Slicing into the Cardinals' edge was Patrick Modzelewski who responded with a long ball of his own as part of four unanswered scores by the Golden Eagles. It was McIntosh who returned the favor for the visitors, netting five of Plattsburgh State's seven markers during a 7-2 stretch which upped the visitors lead to 15-8 with 11:47 left in the first.
Xavier Thomas finished off the scoring spree with a slam dunk, but during the last 11:47 of the frame the Cardinals would average just about one point per minute while each member of the Golden Eagles seemed to discover his shooting touch.
Thomas' jam proved to be the last Plattsburgh State points for a stretch of just over six minutes. While the Cardinals were busy going 0-for-6 from the field while committing four turnovers, Levi Pace was responsible for the first four points of an 8-0 spurt from the home team which put them on top 16-15 as 6:03 remained in the frame.
The free throw stripe finally quenched the Cardinals' offensive thirst as Mike Mitchell and Kyle Richardson each connected on a pair of tries to retake the lead, 19-18, with 4:05 left in the frame. Plattsburgh State's late first-half advantage swelled to three points after Richardson found Thomas for a layup with 1:27 to go, but an old-fashioned three-point play by Hamed Shamseldin followed by a downtown swish from Mike Gallagher allowed the Golden Eagles to sprint back in front, 26-23.
Although McIntosh canned two attempts at the foul line before the curtain was lowered on the first half, the Cardinals would never find themselves in front again.
Instead of reversing their offensive fortunes on the offensive end in the deciding frame, the Cardinals instead bore witness to a Golden Eagle squad that was having no difficulties at all putting the ball in the basket.
Over the first 8:53 of the final stanza, the Golden Eagles ripped off a 19-6 run to extend their lead to 14, 45-31. Modzelewski was the primary antagonist through that span as he delivered 10 of Brockport's 19 points. The Cardinals, meanwhile, hit just two field goals during that span.
Thanks to a pair of free throws from Thomas and another distance hit from Correa, Plattsburgh Stat pulled to within single digits, 45-36, at the midway points of the half. The Cardinals' attempt for a comeback was short-lived, though, as Brockport delivered a devastating counterpunch in the form of an 11-3 surge. The only three points Plattsburgh State recorded during that 3:47 span were free throws by McIntosh.
Even though McIntosh led a late charge to trim the Golden Eagles' edge to 58-48 with 2:15 to go, the Golden Eagles closed out the triumph with a game-clinching 13-4 run.
Modzelewski led the offensive charge for Brockport by pumping in 15 points while Pace added 14 and a game-high eight rebounds.
After a road split in SUNYAC play, the Cardinals make a return trip to Plattsburgh to kick off their last four regular season home tilts of the season. On Friday night at 5:30, the Cardinals shoot for a season sweep of SUNYAC enemy Buffalo State in the first Plattsburgh State athletic event of the spring 2015 semester.
