The Plattsburgh State men’s basketball team closed its season with two straight losses against SUNY New Paltz (73-68) and SUNY Oneonta (105-65) dropping their final overall record to 8-17 and conference record 5-13, meaning they are not qualified for the SUNYAC tournament.
The Red Dragons took the lead early on into the game when senior guard Kevin Mackin made a field goal 88 seconds in the first half. SUNY Oneonta kept the lead for the duration of the first half. The Cardinals trailed the entire game.
However, junior guard Travis Cox had his best performance ever since playing as a Cardinal in the game against SUNY New Paltz. Cox scored a career high of 31 points, got seven rebounds and six assists.
Head coach Micheal Blaine was disappointed that PSU did not qualify for the SUNYAC tournament. Nevertheless, he is proud of his team and their accomplishments.
“I can’t say that I’m completely disappointed,” Blaine said. “I’m proud of the effort the guys gave night in and night out. We always got the best effort out of the guys. If you’re getting the max amount of effort then you can always love the results.”
Blaine said he thinks the season was a success because the team continuously improved every game despite the unusually few players that competed. He described their growth to being “baptized by fire.” The freshman were asked to go above and beyond very early in their career.
Throughout the season, freshman players Cameron Ness, Erik Salo and Axel Rodriguez were expected to play very well in their early career. Ness and Salo both hit careers highs towards the end of the season.
“This season was the most challenging,” Deangelis said. “I’ve never been the oldest on the team. I’ve never had a new coach put in right before the season started. For me, this was something I’ve never done before.”
Deangelis said PSU’s growth, especially from the young guys, was great to see.
“Mentally and physically they grew so much,” Deangelis said.
Deangelis is a senior, therefore this was his last season playing for the Cards. He said every game of this season was “grinded out.”
“We never got blown out this season,” Deangelis said. “But we were never blowing out the other team.” This season handed PSU many losses throughout. Blaine said it was caused by unusual circumstances such as low head count in players.
