PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Already the winningest women's basketball coach in the history of Plattsburgh State, head coach Cheryl Cole was able to put a checkmark next to another major milestone on Friday night in Memorial Hall while accomplishing an important 2014-15 goal, too.
Cole picked up her 200
th victory as the Cardinals' head coach behind a career-high 24 points from Devona Paul and Misha Green was almost unstoppable on the glass, corralling a game and career-high 13 rebounds as Plattsburgh State put the finishing touches on a berth in the 2014-15 SUNYAC Championship Tournament with a 67-52 triumph over The College at Brockport.
Joining Paul in double-figures were Brittany Marshall (15) and Allie Taylor (12) who helped the Cardinals return to the .500 mark with a record of 12-12 which includes a 9-8 showing in the SUNYAC. Currently, the Cardinals sit in a three-way tie for fourth place in the conference standings with one game remaining in the regular season. Plattsburgh State can finish no lower than sixth which is the cutoff point for the conference tournament.
Plattsburgh State held the lead for all but 25 seconds and held the Golden Eagles' (7-17, 5-12 SUNYAC) offense down to the tune of 28-percent (14-for-50) shooting and out-rebounded the visitors 50-35 while dashing their postseason hopes in the process.
All four players listed above played a part in a 10-2 Plattsburgh State scoring surge in the opening 5:11 of the Cardinals' penultimate regular season home bout of the season. Brockport was able to make things mildly interesting, though, by countering with an 8-0 run which featured long balls by Alyssa Rusinko and Faith Welch.
Another historic moment occurred just seconds later, though, when Paul rose up from three-point land and knocked down her first-ever collegiate three-point field goal, which elicited a great many laughs from her compatriots on the bench.
Hannah Rehbaum provided the only Brockport lead of the night when she tallied two of her team-best 18 points on a layup which made the score 14-13 with 6:40 remaining in the first, but Plattsburgh State took over for good from there.
The tandem of Marshall and Paul provided all but three Plattsburgh State points through the course of an 11-2 spurt which upped the Cardinals' edge to 24-16 with 1:41 to go in the half.
Although Rehbaum slung in three more markers to cut things to five, Taylor drilled a triple at the top of the key with the help of a nifty dish from Jax Miller as the final seconds melted away from the first-half clock.
Armed with a 27-19 lead heading into the final 20 minutes of the battle, the Cardinals saw that edge shrink when Olivia Suhr connected on a long-distance field goal as part of a 5-0 Brockport run to begin the half.
Marshall, though, initiated a 9-0 Cardinal run with a downtown bucket of her own while Paul added four and Taylor three to push the Plattsburgh State edge to double-digits, 36-24, a little over three minutes into the final half.
From there, Plattsburgh State's lead would only shrink to fewer than 10 points on one occasion.
Paul stepped up in a big way on the defensive end of the floor, too, as she held Suhr – the SUNYAC's leading scorer – to just nine points on 4-for-9 shooting. Suhr came into Memorial Hall boasting a scoring average of 17.9 points per game. Rusinko finished with 10 points for Brockport.
Already assured a spot in the SUNYAC Tournament Championship and with the potential to rise to as high as the fourth seed in the six-team tournament, Plattsburgh State will look to put the finishing touches on its regular season by honoring its two-member senior class. Before Plattsburgh State's 4 p.m. tilt with SUNYAC regular season champion SUNY Geneseo on Saturday afternoon, the Cardinals will honor Marshall and Yazmin Lewis with a short ceremony prior to tip-off.
