They say anything can happen in the postseason and tonight the SUNY Oneonta men's basketball proved just that with a 60-57 upset of rival SUNY Cortland in the opening round of the SUNYAC tournament.  Oneonta (13-13) will now move on to face No. 2 seed Brockport in the semifinals this Friday at Plattsburgh beginning at 5:30 pm.
 
"I am really proud of our team," said Head Coach Cameron Conover.  "We played extremely tough tonight and beat a very good team.  Our guys followed the game plan and we got the result we wanted.  We are excited to still be playing and are looking forward to practice tomorrow."
 
Oneonta, who entered the contest with just one win in its last eight games used a balanced attack to come away with the win.  The reserves, led by sophomore Harrison Deegan (Putnam Valley/Putnam Valley) and freshman Joseph Bull (Bronx/Mount St. Michael), gave Oneonta a tremendous lift off the bench scoring 15 and 14 points respectively.
 
Oneonta held a decided advantage off the glass in tonight's game outrebounding Cortland (18-8), 44-25.  Oneonta collected 15 offensive rebounds to only six for Cortland.  Sophomore Ian Schultz (Clifton Park/CBA) was huge with a collegiate high 14 boards while freshman Sean Nolan (Voorheesville/Voorheesville) collected a collegiate best 12 boards.
 
The extra opportunities on the offensive end for Oneonta led to 20 second chance points tonight while outscoring Cortland in the paint 44-24.
 
Oneonta trailed only once in the game, 6-5, when James Morales hit a jumper at the 16:41 mark of the first half.  On the ensuing possession, senior Dwayne Freeman (Schenectady/Notre-Dame Bishop Gibbons) buried a three to put Oneonta back in front to stay.  Freeman finished the game with 10 points.
 
Oneonta expanded its lead late in the opening half putting together a 10-5 burst to grab a 33-23 lead heading into halftime.
 
In the opening four minutes of the second half, Oneonta assumed its largest lead of 13 points at 41-28 thanks to a pair of buckets by Schultz.  Oneonta continued to hold its lead, which hovered around double digits until midway through the second half.
 
An 11-2 run during a four-minute stretch pulled Cortland to within a bucket at 53-51 with just over five minutes remaining.  Seven points by Morales led the way for the hosts and a layup by Zach Lydon capped the run.
 
Morales scored the final basket for either team with 53 seconds to go.  After a missed front end of a one-and-one by Nolan Cortland had the ball with a chance to tie with 18 seconds left.  Cortland had two opportunities to tie the score but came away empty as time expired leaving Oneonta with the win.
 
Oneonta will be advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament for a second straight year hoping to get back to the championship game.  Friday's matchup will be a rematch of last year's semifinal, which Oneonta won 85-72.