Charlie Croff finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds and Brandon Mills scored 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds for Brockport. Sophomore Jon Rother led Cortland with 12 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots. Junior Justin O'Garrow added 11 points, five assists and five steals.
Cortland led by eight points on two occasions in the first half but held only a 35-34 edge at halftime. Neither team led by more than four points the entire second half until two free throws with 12 seconds left created the final margin. The Red Dragons took a 51-48 lead on a three-pointer by sophomore Brian Kirchhoff with 10:42 left, but Bills responded with a trey at the 8:10 mark to tie the game at 51-51.
The lead changed hands four times before O'Garrow sank two free throws with 4:04 remaining to tie the game at 56-56. Bills hit what proved to be the game winner just over a minute later and Mills extended the lead to 60-56 with a layup at the 2:09 mark.
Cortland missed six three-pointers in the final 2:26 and was held without a field goal for the last 6:38 of the contest. The Red Dragons shot 52 percent in the first half but only 27 percent after intermission. Brockport shot 46 percent in each half.
SUNY Brockport vs SUNY Cortland 1/30/04 8 p.m. at Cortland, NY (Corey Gymnasium) SUNY BROCKPORT 62, SUNY CORTLAND 56 SUNY BROCKPORT (10-6, 6-1 SUNYAC) BILLS, Randy 5-12 1-3 13; CROFF, Charlie 5-11 0-0 12; MILLS, Brandon 6-9 0-0 12; BOSWELL, Bryan 5-9 0-0 11; NAZARIO, Orlando 2-4 1-2 6; ANDREWS, David 2-8 0-0 4; HOPKINS, Chris 0-1 2-2 2; KORCZYNSKI, Chet 1-1 0-0 2; RUBERTONE, Dan 0-1 0-0 0; CARROLL, Brian 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 4-7 62. SUNY CORTLAND (11-5, 4-4 SUNYAC) ROTHER, Jon 3-6 5-6 12; O'GARROW, Justin 3-7 5-5 11; RANIERI, Frank 5-16 0-0 10; KIRCHHOFF, Brian 3-9 0-1 9; JUTTON, Dave 2-6 0-0 5; ORTQUIST, Erik 1-1 1-2 3; PERKINS, Chad 1-1 0-0 2; COLEMAN, Derrick 1-3 0-1 2; WOODS, Brandon 1-1 0-0 2; HEADLEY, Rodney 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-51 11-15 56. SUNY Brockport................ 34 28 - 62 SUNY Cortland................. 35 21 - 56 3-point goals-SUNY Brockport 6-17 (CROFF, Charlie 2-3; BILLS, Randy 2-5; BOSWELL, Bryan 1-4; NAZARIO, Orlando 1-1; CARROLL, Brian 0-1; HOPKINS, Chris 0-1; ANDREWS, David 0-2), SUNY Cortland 5-21 (KIRCHHOFF, Brian 3-9; JUTTON, Dave 1-4; ROTHER, Jon 1-2; RANIERI, Frank 0-3; O'GARROW, Justin 0-3). Fouled out--SUNY Brockport-BOSWELL, Bryan, SUNY Cortland-None. Rebounds-SUNY Brockport 35 (CROFF, Charlie 11), SUNY Cortland 30 (ROTHER, Jon 7). Assists-SUNY Brockport 14 (HOPKINS, Chris 4), SUNY Cortland 15 (O'GARROW, Justin 5). Total fouls-SUNY Brockport 15, SUNY Cortland 14. A-425