The Plattsburgh State Men’s Basketball Team finished its regular season this past weekend with a two-game road trip. The Cardinals split the road trip with a loss to the Oneonta Red Dragons (12-10) and the New Paltz Hawks (14-9).
PSUC (20-5) ended the first half of its game against the Red Dragons (16-10) down by six. The Cards couldn’t spark a comeback in the second, as they were outscored 36-24. PSUC were defeated 80-62.
Head coach Tom Curle said they got outplayed.
“They outplayed us, they shot the ball better than us, “ Curle said. “They are playing good basketball. They beat us and Oswego in the same week.”
Senior guard Brandon Johnson said emotions were high.
“Emotions just riled out,” Johnson said. “We weren’t getting calls that we usually get, and I think we just took ourselves out of the game with us being angry at the referees.”
Senior forward Chris Middleton also said emotions got the better of the team.
“They came out really prepared,” Middleton said. “They outplayed us. We came out in the second half and, you know, emotions got us. We weren’t getting the right calls.”
In the second game of the back-to-back, the Cards were able to bounce back with a 80-73 win over the New Paltz Hawks (14-9).
Senior forward Jonathan Patron was the leading scorer with 29 points.
Middleton said sticking to what they know was the key to the victory.
“We showed who the better team was,” Middleton said. “We played the way we are supposed to play. That wasn’t us on Friday. We got out-worked. We looked like a couple of babies, like we weren’t grown men.”
Johnson said his teammates stepped up big when they needed to.
“Nick DeAngelis came up big for us when [Patron] was in foul trouble and [Ian Howard] was out of the game, and he took some leadership,” Johnson said. “He was taking some shots and he was knocking them down.”
Curle gave the game plan for the win.
“We weren’t making a lot of shots this weekend,” Curle said. “We had to get the ball underneath and score the basket a little more. We do know how to bounce back.”
Curle also explained how practice will look this week.
“We are going to do a lot of defensive stuff, stuff for rebounding. We are going to try to play to our strengths in practice over the next couple of days,” Curle said. “The scouting report we are going to put that in there so we will have two practices this week to get ready for the game.”
The semifinals of the SUNYAC Tournament take place tonight as the Cardinals (20-5) take on the Brockport Golden Eagles (16-10) at 5:30 p.m. in Oswego.
Curle discussed the game plan for their next game.
“We have to out rebound and score inside it’s that simple we have to dominate the inside play no matter who we play, “ Curle said, “We have to play great defense we have to guard the three, Against Brockport you have to guard the paint you can’t just let them score at the rim and kick out you have to guard the paint.”
