News Release

CORTLAND, N.Y. — Junior Nick Grimmer scored 16 of his game-high 19 points in the second half as SUNYIT posted a 68-64 victory at Cortland.

Leonardo Leon added 15 points, seven rebounds and six steals for the Wildcats (11-7, 5-4 SUNYAC). Jerry Buckley made all four of his shots from the floor and finished with 11 points and five assists.

Junior Justin O'Garrow and sophomore Frank Ranieri scored 16 points each to pace Cortland (11-6, 4-5 SUNYAC). O'Garrow also registered seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. Ranieri made 6-of-8 shots and tied for the team lead with eight rebounds. Sophomore Jon Rother chipped in 13 points and eight rebounds and freshman Chad Perkins provided a spark off the bench with eight points and five rebounds – both totals matching career highs – in just 11 minutes of action.

SUNYIT took an 8-7 lead 3 minutes, 25 seconds into the game and never trailed again. The Wildcats led 26-16 with 6:20 left in the half before Cortland got back to within 26-23 with 2:26 left. SUNYIT led 31-25 at halftime and 44-37 with 13:34 remaining in the game.

Cortland mounted a 9-2 run over the next two minutes, capped by a Perkins tip-in with 11:25 left that tied the game at 46-46. Grimmer followed with a steal and layup at the 9:57 mark and Jerry Buckley's steal and layup on the next possession gave the Wildcats a 50-46 lead.

The SUNYIT lead grew to 62-51 on a Leon layup with 2:20 remaining. Cortland got back to within 63-58 with 27 seconds left on an O'Garrow short jumper, but Grimmer made two free throws a second later. Freshman Dave Jutton canned a three-pointer with 19 seconds left to cut the deficit to 65-61. Grimmer, though, hit two more free throws with 18 seconds on the clock.

Jutton was fouled with 10 seconds left while setting up for a three-pointer, but the foul was ruled to have come on the floor and not in the act of shooting. Jutton made one of two free throws, SUNYIT answered with a free throw with seven seconds left and O'Garrow's layup capped the scoring with three seconds left.

Cortland did a good job defensively on Grimmer despite his 19-point effort. The junior forward entered the game as the SUNYAC's top scorer at 25.1 points per game. He was held to three first-half points and did not make his first field goal until the 17:15 mark of the second half. He finished 5-of-16 from the floor.

SUNY Inst. of Tech. vs SUNY Cortland
2/3/04 8 p.m. at Cortland, NY (Corey Gymnasium)

SUNY INST. OF TECH. 68, SUNY CORTLAND 64

SUNY INST. OF TECH. (11-7, 5-4 SUNYAC)
GRIMMER, Nick 5-16 8-12 19; LEON, Leonardo 6-13 2-2 15; BUCKLEY, Jerry 4-4
1-2 11; PHILLIPS, Rich 4-7 1-2 9; STANTON, Malcolm 4-8 0-1 9; PLANTE, Chris
1-3 0-0 3; MROZ, Jeff 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-52 14-23 68.

SUNY CORTLAND (11-6, 4-5 SUNYAC)
RANIERI, Frank 6-8 2-2 16; O'GARROW, Justin 6-12 3-5 16; ROTHER, Jon 6-14
1-1 13; PERKINS, Chad 3-6 2-2 8; JUTTON, Dave 3-8 1-2 8; KIRCHHOFF, Brian
1-7 0-0 3; COLEMAN, Derrick 0-2 0-0 0; ORTQUIST, Erik 0-2 0-0 0; SKRELJA,
Simon 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-60 9-14 64.

SUNY Inst. of Tech............   31   37  -   68
SUNY Cortland.................   25   39  -   64

3-point goals-SUNY Inst. of Tech. 6-18 (BUCKLEY, Jerry 2-2; PLANTE, Chris
1-2; LEON, Leonardo 1-6; GRIMMER, Nick 1-5; STANTON, Malcolm 1-3), SUNY
Cortland 5-20 (RANIERI, Frank 2-2; O'GARROW, Justin 1-5; KIRCHHOFF, Brian
1-5; JUTTON, Dave 1-5; COLEMAN, Derrick 0-1; ROTHER, Jon 0-2). Fouled
out--SUNY Inst. of Tech.-None, SUNY Cortland-KIRCHHOFF, Brian. Rebounds-SUNY
Inst. of Tech. 32 (STANTON, Malcolm 7; LEON, Leonardo 7; PHILLIPS, Rich 7),
SUNY Cortland 38 (ROTHER, Jon 8; RANIERI, Frank 8). Assists-SUNY Inst. of
Tech. 11 (BUCKLEY, Jerry 5), SUNY Cortland 12 (O'GARROW, Justin 4). Total
fouls-SUNY Inst. of Tech. 16, SUNY Cortland 20. A-175