With the win, Cortland (16-8, 8-7 SUNYAC) clinches a spot in next week's eight-team SUNYAC tournament. The Red Dragons will finish either fifth or sixth, depending upon the outcome of their game Saturday versus visiting Buffalo State along with other league results. Cortland will play on the road Tuesday in the quarterfinals against an opponent to be determined.
Geneseo (17-8, 10-6 SUNYAC) is finished with its regular season schedule. The Knights will finish either third or fourth in the league and will host a quarterfinal game Tuesday.
Rother was held to two points in the first half, but hit 3-of-6 three-pointers in his 13-point second half outburst. Rother has scored in double figures in all 24 games this season. Kirchhoff made 4-of-9 three-pointers and also finished with three steals. Junior Justin O'Garrow added 12 points, six rebounds and three steals and sophomore Frank Ranieri scored 11 points and also recorded seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks.
Junior David Muchnick paced Geneseo with 14 points. He was 3-for-3 in the first half, all from three-point range, and finished 4-of-5 from behind the arc. John Kleis scored 11 points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
Cortland led 17-10 eight minutes into the game, but the Knights used a 10-3 run to take the lead with 7:42 left. Geneseo held a 33-28 lead after a Ben Schwenebraten layup with 1:22 left, but two free throws by sophomore Erik Ortquist and a Kirchhoff trey with 43 seconds left sent the teams into the locker rooms tied at 33-33. Both teams shot 52 percent from the floor in the opening half.
Geneseo led 37-35 with 16 minutes remaining before Rother sparked a 17-2 Red Dragon run over the next seven minutes. He scored 11 points during that stretch, including all three of his three-pointers. Ortquist's layup with 9:55 left capped the run and gave Cortland a 52-40 lead.
The guests moved back to within 53-48 on a Kleis layup at the 7:54 mark and still trailed by only six at 57-51 on Kleis' three-point play with 5:49 left. Kirchhoff, however, hit a three-pointer 11 seconds later to start a 9-0 Red Dragon run that put the game out of reach.
Newspaper Box Score SUNY Geneseo vs SUNY Cortland 2/20/04 8 p.m. at Cortland, NY (Corey Gymnasium) SUNY CORTLAND 71, SUNY GENESEO 59 SUNY GENESEO (17-8/10-6 SUNYAC) MUCHNICK, David 5-6 0-1 14; KLEIS, John 5-15 1-2 11; SCHWENEBRATEN, Ben 4-11 0-0 8; ZERA, Joe 4-7 0-0 8; REDMAN, Kurt 3-5 1-2 7; BENNETT, Brian 2-2 0-1 4; TRIPI, Frank 1-2 0-0 3; MCDONNELL, Steve 1-7 0-0 2; SCIERA, Scott 1-2 0-0 2; KELLEY, Nick 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-58 2-6 59. SUNY CORTLAND (16-8/8-7 SUNYAC) KIRCHHOFF, Brian 5-10 1-2 15; ROTHER, Jon 5-11 2-2 15; O'GARROW, Justin 4-9 4-4 12; RANIERI, Frank 4-8 3-4 11; JUTTON, Dave 2-6 0-1 6; ORTQUIST, Erik 2-3 2-2 6; WOODS, Brandon 1-2 2-2 4; HEADLEY, Rodney 1-3 0-0 2; PERKINS, Chad 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-53 14-17 71. SUNY Geneseo.................. 33 26 - 59 SUNY Cortland................. 33 38 - 71 3-point goals-SUNY Geneseo 5-16 (MUCHNICK, David 4-5; TRIPI, Frank 1-2; SCHWENEBRATEN, Ben 0-1; ZERA, Joe 0-2; MCDONNELL, Steve 0-4; KELLEY, Nick 0-1; KLEIS, John 0-1), SUNY Cortland 9-25 (KIRCHHOFF, Brian 4-9; ROTHER, Jon 3-6; JUTTON, Dave 2-5; HEADLEY, Rodney 0-1; PERKINS, Chad 0-1; RANIERI, Frank 0-2; O'GARROW, Justin 0-1). Fouled out--SUNY Geneseo-MCDONNELL, Steve, SUNY Cortland-None. Rebounds-SUNY Geneseo 36 (KLEIS, John 9), SUNY Cortland 26 (RANIERI, Frank 7). Assists-SUNY Geneseo 18 (SCHWENEBRATEN, Ben 4), SUNY Cortland 13 (JUTTON, Dave 4). Total fouls-SUNY Geneseo 15, SUNY Cortland 13. A-550