The SUNY Oneonta men's basketball team dropped a pair of close weekend battles with rival SUNY Cortland and Oswego.  Last night, Oneonta (11-6/6-4 SUNYAC) fell in the final minutes to Cortland, 79-74, and today, they couldn't overcome its deficit in an 80-72 loss to the Lakers.
 
In today's game, Oswego (12-5/5-5 SUNYAC) scored the first 13 points of the game.  The Red Dragons got back into the contest with nine unanswered, but the Lakers countered with a 16-5 run that put them ahead by 15 points with 11 minutes remaining in the opening half.  The Lakers kept their lead in double digits at Halftime, leading 44-31.
 
Oneonta made a few runs at Oswego in the second half, but never got any closer than six points with 1:37 to go in the game after an Ian Schupp (New Hampton/Goshen) three-pointer.  Schupp led Oneonta with 16 points off the bench.
 
Schupp was joined in double figures today by seniors Mikey McElroy (Saratoga Springs/Saratoga Springs) (14 pts), Jack Dignan (Brewster/Brewster) (11 pts) and Jackson Zuvic (Cold Spring/Haldane) (12 pts) and junior Lawrence Coleman (Croton on the Hudson/Hendrick Hudson) (11 pts).
 
Despite shooting a season low 39 percent today, the Red Dragons did make a season high 13 shots from behind the arc.  Zuvic and Schupp both made four from long range.
 
In last night's loss to Cortland, Oneonta had five players in double figures led by Coleman's 22 points.  McElroy added 16 points and Zuvic and Dignan each contributed 10 points.  Schupp came off the bench to score 11 points.
 
Oneonta led at halftime 38-34 thanks to a combined 25 points by McElroy and Coleman.
 
Zuvic made a three-pointer to tie the game at 50 apiece at the 15:01 mark of the second half.  Cortland had taken a lead after a spurt to start the second half.
 
A 9-2 run over the next five minutes gave Cortland its lead back.  Oneonta continued to counter and a layup by McElroy cut Cortland's lead to two points with five minutes remaining.
 
Cortland pushed its lead back to seven points in the next minute.  Back-to-Back treys with a couple of defensive stops brought Oneonta back to within one point with 1:25 remaining.
 
Oneonta missed a couple of shots down the stretch and Cortland held on for the victory.
 
Oneonta will play New Paltz at home on Tuesday night.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30pm.