POTSDAM, N.Y.—The SUNY Potsdam men's basketball team (7-18, 7-11 SUNYAC) overpowered Buffalo State (8-17, 6-12) 72-55 in the teams' season finale on Saturday afternoon.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Bears opened the contest on a 20-8 run over the first 9:36, capped by a three from sophomore guard Nichoals Cortez (Harlem, N.Y./La Salle Academy).
- The Bengals countered with a 15-6 stretch and were within 26-23 at 5:10.
- Potsdam led 35-29 at the half.
- Buffalo State made it a 39-35 contest with 16:29 to go, but the Bears pulled away with a 33-20 finish.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Cortez just missed a career-high with 26 points to lead all scorers.
- Sophomore guard Mohammad Sylla (Bronx, N.Y./Darrow) scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds.
- Junior guard Khalil Screen (Providence, R.I./Classical) also had eight points to go with six boards.
- Senior guard Walter deFreitas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) finished with seven points and seven rebounds.
- Freshman forward Zee Johnson (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) paced the Bengals with 13 points.
SENIOR DAY
Prior to the contest, the Bears honored seniors
Parker Kelly (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Beekmantown) and deFreitas for their careers. Kelly reached 1,000 points in yesterday's win over Fredonia. He averaged 10.6 points-per-game this season. deFreitas scored 9.8 ppg. in his lone season in Potsdam.
