The postseason begins Tuesday night and the SUNY Oneonta men's basketball team will be a participant after earning the final playoff spot today with its 72-60 victory at Potsdam.  A win and get in was what Oneonta (12-13, 8-10 SUNYAC) needed and they took care of business with five players reaching double figures.
 
The Red Dragons will now face its rival Cortland on the road Tuesday beginning at 7:30pm.  Oneonta was swept during the regular season by Cortland with both meetings coming in January.
 
"Today was a team effort," said Head Coach Cameron Conover.  "Our Guys stepped up and earned our way into the playoffs."
 
Leading the way for the Red Dragons today with some punch off the bench was sophomore Harrison Deegan (Putnam Valley/Putnam Valley) scoring 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting.
 
The sophomore Tandem of Carson Jacobs (Buchanan/Hendrick Hudson) and Ian Schultz (Clifton Park/CBA) asserted themselves around the basket scoring 15 points each.  Jacobs also added a game high 11 boards including five offensive rebounds.
 
Freshman Sean Nolan (Voorheesville/Voorheesville) posted 10 points and nine rebounds while sophomore Kevin Mackin (Nanuet/Nanuet) added 12 points including 7-of-8 from the charity stripe.
 
Oneonta shot nearly 52 percent in the opening half taking a 36-27 lead at the break.  The Red Dragons never trailed in the game scoring the opening four points of the game.  A lay up by Nolan at the 11:26 mark of the first half gave Oneonta its largest lead of the half 20-9.  Schultz and Jacobs led the scoring in the opening twenty minutes combining for 25 points.
 
In the first minute of the second half, the Red Dragons pushed its lead back to double-digits, 41-29, before Potsdam (11-14, 6-12 SUNYAC) ran off six quick points to cut its deficit in half.
 
Oneonta's lead hovered around eight points for about seven minutes before pushing back it back to double figures with a 7-2 spurt midway through the half grabbing its largest lead of 14 points with 8:08 remaining.
 
The Bears cut Oneonta's lead back to single digits, but could never get any closer than eight points in the closing five minutes of the contest.  Mackin put the finishing touches on the 12-point win with a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left.  The Red Dragons converted 22-of-35 free throws outscoring the Bears from the line by its margin of victory.
 
Oneonta will be making its 21^st appearance overall in the SUNYAC Tournament hoping to make a run back to the championship game, which they did last year.