(Angelina Dohre/Special to The Leader)
QUINTIN JAMES
Staff Writer
Coming off a weekend in which they split two important road conference games, the Fredonia men’s basketball came home to play their final two home games of the season.
Fredonia needed to win and have some help from other SUNYAC teams to keep up in the race for the playoffs, so the Blue Devils were looking to come out focused and prepared.
The team’s first game of the weekend was against conference-leading Oswego. The Blue Devils used a second half rally, capped off with a game winning shot by junior Dante Williams with nine seconds left, to upset Oswego.
The Blue Devils were led by junior Ian Helps, who had a double-double (24 points/10 rebounds). Junior Nicc Johnson added 17 points and Williams added 15. The Blue Devils used a balanced offense and made key stops in this game to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.
Fredonia started out slow, as Oswego came out and led 36-29 at the half. At the start of the second half, the Blue Devils started their comeback. They took their first lead with 13 minutes left in the second half, and widened the lead to 51-43.
Fredonia would strengthen their lead to 11, their largest of the game, before Oswego would make a run later in the half. With the Blue Devils down one with 1:30 left in the game, Helps would turn a steal into a layup at the other end and the Blue Devils regained the lead.
The next four possessions saw each team score and change leads until Williams’ game winner with nine seconds left.
The next day the Blue Devils were back at it again as they faced another playoff-bound SUNYAC team as Cortland visited Steele Hall. It was senior day in Fredonia as seniors Richard De La Cruz, Kareem Brown and Jovohn Owens were honored before the game.
The energy the Blue Devils showed before didn’t replicate to the next game. After a tough comeback victory the night prior, the Blue Devils looked sluggish as they were routed 75-56.
The Blue Devils were led by seniors Kareem Brown (17 points) and Richard De La Cruz (12 points).
Fredonia kept pace with Cortland early in the first half, but down 24-21, Cortland went on an 8-0 run and would go into the locker room up by 13.
In the second half, Fredonia’s offense would continue their struggles as the deficit swelled to 18. Fredonia would cut the lead back down to 10 with 5:14 to go in the game after a Brown three, but the Blue Devils would get no closer as they couldn’t stop Cortland’s offense in the second half.
Coach Philip Seymore says he doesn’t know if the team was fatigued, and mentioned the fact that they’ve played back to back games before this season. He gave Cortland a lot of credit in the game, saying that “Cortland shot the ball really well. They packed the paint and played a lot of zone and forced us to shoot from the outside.”
Fredonia’s chances of making the playoffs are slim, but they aren’t out of it and Seymore will have his players prepared for their final game, which is on the road at Buffalo State.
“We have an outside shot at the playoffs. We’re focusing on playing to the best to our ability and getting a win,” he said.