News Release

CORTLAND, N.Y. — Senior Scott Taggart (Sidney Center/Franklin) scored 22 points and hauled in 14 rebounds as Cortland maintained its SUNYAC lead with a 74-67 win over SUNYIT. The Red Dragons improve to 18-2 overall and 10-1 in the league, and are now a game and a half ahead of second place Oswego (9-3) after the Lakers’ loss to Buffalo State.

Taggart made 10-of-16 shots from the floor. He scored 14 points in the second half. Junior Dave Maggiacomo (Pleasant Valley/Arlington) made four three-pointers, all in the first half, and finished with 18 points. Senior Frank Ranieri (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) added 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

Senior Simon Skrelja (Hastings-on-Hudson/Hastings) and junior Dave Jutton (Red Hook) each finished with eight points, with Skrelja also recording five steals, three assists and five rebounds. Junior Rod Headley (Peekskill) grabbed nine rebounds and dished out three assists and sophomore Mark Schaller (Rochester/Greece Athena) finished with a career-best three assists. Two of Schaller’s assists set up Taggart layups in the final two minutes to help seal the win.

SUNYIT (10-9, 7-5 SUNYAC) had three players score in double figures. Junior Antoine Gilkes (Bronx/MVCC) registered 16 points and 10 rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench. He made seven of his eight field goal attempts. Junior Chris Reaves (Syracuse/Herkimer CC), the team’s leading scorer, finished with 11 points despite being held scoreless in the first half. Junior Pat Whelan (Johnson City/Broome CC) scored 10 points.

Maggiacomo made his four three-pointers in the first 11 minutes of the game as the Red Dragons raced out to a 28-11 lead. The Wildcats got back to within 28-21 on a Gilkes layup with 4:34 left, but Cortland finished the half on an 11-3 run and led 39-24 at halftime.

SUNYIT drew as close as five at 47-42 with 14:06 left after back-to-back three-pointers by Reaves. Cortland re-established a lead of as much as 13 points, but the Wildcats hung tough and eventually pulled to within 66-60 with 1:45 to go on two Chris Laboard (Bronx/MVCC) free throws. The Red Dragons answered 10 seconds later with Taggart’s layup off a Schaller feed, and a similar play 30 seconds later after Cortland broke the Wildcats’ pressure extended the lead to 70-60.

Trailing by 12 with 38 seconds left, the guests made one last push and trailed by five with four seconds left. Schaller ended the game with two free throws on Cortland’s last possession.

Newspaper Box Score
SUNY Inst. of Tech. vs SUNY Cortland
2/3/06 8 p.m. at Cortland, NY (Corey Gym)

SUNY CORTLAND 74, SUNY INST. OF TECH. 67

SUNY INST. OF TECH. (10-9, 7-5 SUNYAC)
GILKES, Antoine 7-8 2-2 16; REAVES, Chris 4-10 1-2 11; WHALEN, Pat 4-7 2-3
10; PLANTE, Chris 3-8 0-0 8; LABOARD, Chris 2-11 4-7 8; BELONE, Elvis 2-4
2-2 7; BIEN-AIME, Chantal 2-6 0-0 5; EDWARDS, Ajani 0-1 2-2 2; BROWN, Chris
0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-56 13-18 67.

SUNY CORTLAND (18-2,10-1 SUNYAC)
TAGGART, Scott 10-16 2-2 22; MAGGIACOMO, Dave 6-13 2-2 18; RANIERI, Frank
4-10 3-4 11; JUTTON, Dave 3-9 0-0 8; SKRELJA, Simon 4-9 0-2 8; MIOLAN, Juan
2-5 0-0 4; SCHALLER, Mark 0-0 2-2 2; HEADLEY, Rod 0-7 1-3 1; FISH, Derrick
0-1 0-0 0; MERRITT, Quentin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-70 10-15 74.

SUNY Inst. of Tech............   24   43  -   67
SUNY Cortland.................   39   35  -   74

3-point goals-SUNY Inst. of Tech. 6-19 (REAVES, Chris 2-5; PLANTE, Chris
2-6; BIEN-AIME, Chantal 1-2; BELONE, Elvis 1-2; LABOARD, Chris 0-3; WHALEN,
Pat 0-1), SUNY Cortland 6-18 (MAGGIACOMO, Dave 4-10; JUTTON, Dave 2-7;
MIOLAN, Juan 0-1). Fouled out--SUNY Inst. of Tech.-None, SUNY Cortland-None.
Rebounds-SUNY Inst. of Tech. 29 (GILKES, Antoine 10), SUNY Cortland 48
(TAGGART, Scott 14). Assists-SUNY Inst. of Tech. 12 (EDWARDS, Ajani 4), SUNY
Cortland 17 (RANIERI, Frank 3; SCHALLER, Mark 3; SKRELJA, Simon 3; HEADLEY,
Rod 3). Total fouls-SUNY Inst. of Tech. 15, SUNY Cortland 13. A-550