Steve McDonnell led a balanced Geneseo offensive attack with 17 points. Ben Schwenebraten scored 16 points, Joe Zera added 15 and John Kleis finished with 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Cortland was paced by freshman Dave Jutton's (Red Hook) 21 points, all on three-pointers. Jutton connected on 7-of-9 shots from behind the arc and finished one trey short of tying the school single-game three-point record. Bill Porter made 8-of-9 three-pointers in a game versus Utica/Rome (now SUNYIT) in the 1989-90 season.
Sophomore Jon Rother (Sodus Point/Sodus Central) added 14 points for the Red Dragons on 6-of-9 shooting and continued his streak of scoring in double-figures in every game this season. Sophomore Frank Ranieri (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) scored 11 points and finished with team-highs of six rebounds and four steals.
Geneseo led 23-7 with 9:56 left in the first half. Cortland drew back within eight points with 7:32 left, but the Knights finished the half on a 15-7 run and led 38-22 at the break. Geneseo's lead was in double figures for most of the second half. Cortland trailed 63-48 with four minutes left before going on a 16-4 run. Jutton made four three-pointers in that stretch, the last with 21 seconds left to cut the hosts lead to 67-64. Ranieri scored the other four points during the run, including a steal and dunk with 1:41 left.
Schwenebraten made 1-of-2 free throws with 18 seconds left and Cortland missed a jumper with just under 10 seconds remaining. McDonnell capped the scoring with a pair of free throws with seven seconds left.
Geneseo shot 50 percent from the field, including 67 percent (6-of-9) from three-point range. Cortland shot 48 percent from the floor, 57 percent in the second half, and ended the game 10-of-24 on three-pointers. Geneseo outscored the Red Dragons 14-2 from the foul line.
SUNY Cortland vs SUNY Geneseo 2/6/04 8 p.m. at Geneseo, NY (Kuhl Gymnasium) SUNY GENESEO 70, SUNY CORTLAND 64 SUNY CORTLAND (11-7, 4-6 SUNYAC) JUTTON, Dave 7-11 0-0 21; ROTHER, Jon 6-9 1-1 14; RANIERI, Frank 5-13 1-2 11; HEADLEY, Rodney 3-5 0-1 6; KIRCHHOFF, Brian 1-5 0-0 3; WOODS, Brandon 1-1 0-0 3; COLEMAN, Derrick 1-2 0-0 2; O'GARROW, Justin 1-6 0-0 2; ORTQUIST, Erik 1-1 0-0 2; PERKINS, Chad 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 2-4 64. SUNY GENESEO (15-5, 8-3 SUNYAC) MCDONNELL, Steve 4-7 7-7 17; SCHWENEBRATEN, Ben 7-13 1-4 16; ZERA, Joe 5-10 3-4 15; KLEIS, John 5-13 0-0 10; REDMAN, Kurt 3-5 2-4 8; MUCHNICK, David 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 25-50 14-21 70. SUNY Cortland................. 22 42 - 64 SUNY Geneseo.................. 38 32 - 70 3-point goals-SUNY Cortland 10-24 (JUTTON, Dave 7-9; ROTHER, Jon 1-3; WOODS, Brandon 1-1; KIRCHHOFF, Brian 1-5; O'GARROW, Justin 0-3; RANIERI, Frank 0-3), SUNY Geneseo 6-9 (ZERA, Joe 2-4; MCDONNELL, Steve 2-2; SCHWENEBRATEN, Ben 1-1; MUCHNICK, David 1-2). Fouled out--SUNY Cortland-None, SUNY Geneseo-None. Rebounds-SUNY Cortland 21 (RANIERI, Frank 6), SUNY Geneseo 36 (KLEIS, John 9). Assists-SUNY Cortland 14 (O'GARROW, Justin 5), SUNY Geneseo 15 (BENNETT, Brian 4). Total fouls-SUNY Cortland 17, SUNY Geneseo 8. A-450