Headley hit 7-of-10 shots from the floor and also recorded two steals. Senior Frank Ranieri (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) contributed 13 points and three assists and senior Simon Skrelja (Hastings-on-Hudson/Hastings) hit 6-of-9 shots and finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals off the bench.
Junior Jon Rother (Sodus Point/Sodus), who played two seasons at Cortland from 2002-04, led Brockport with 18 points and seven rebounds. He connected on 8-of-14 shots, including 6-of-10 in a 13-point first half. Senior Ben Bellucci (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) scored 12 points and surpassed the career 1,000-point mark, while senior Jerry Cheves (Brockport) scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Brockport held an early 22-14 lead, but Cortland scored the next nine points and the rest of the half remained close. There were nine ties in the opening half and Cortland took a 35-33 lead into the locker room. The Red Dragons held six-point leads on a few occasions in the first six minutes of the second half and took its largest lead at 59-52 on a Headley layup with 2:05 left.
Senior Kenny Amparo (Yonkers/Charles E. Gorton) hit two free throws at the 1:44 mark and Dan Rubertone (Smithtown/Smithtown West) added a steal and layup eight seconds later to pull Brockport within 59-56. Headley hit one free throw with 1:26 left, and Rother made a layup with 1:14 to go to cut Cortland’s lead to two.
Cortland’s Mark Schaller (Rochester/Greece Athena) hit a foul shot with 52 seconds left to give Cortland a 61-58 lead. Brockport missed its next shot, but a missed Red Dragon free throw gave the Golden Eagles another chance to tie. Mychal Wilkes (Newark) missed a potential game-tying three-pointer with less than 10 seconds left. Rubertone grabbed the offensive rebounds and was fouled with just under four seconds remaining. He made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. Ranieri grabbed the rebound for Corltand and was fouled with about two seconds left. He missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but Headley pulled in the offensive rebound and ran out the clock.
SUNY Brockport vs SUNY Cortland 2/11/06 8 p.m. at Cortland, NY (Corey Gym) SUNY CORTLAND 61, SUNY BROCKPORT 59 SUNY BROCKPORT (13-10,9-5 SUNYAC) ROTHER, Jon 8-14 2-6 18; BELLUCCI, Ben 4-13 3-3 12; CHEVES, Jerry 4-5 0-0 10; RUBERTONE, Dan 4-6 1-2 9; AMPARO, Kenny 2-4 2-2 6; WILKES, Mychal 1-6 0-0 3; MACK, Ian 0-1 1-2 1; KAYS, Eamon 0-0 0-0 0; ZENKEL, Josh 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-49 9-15 59. SUNY CORTLAND (20-2,12-1 SUNYAC) HEADLEY, Rod 7-10 4-9 18; RANIERI, Frank 6-18 0-1 13; SKRELJA, Simon 6-9 0-0 12; TAGGART, Scott 4-7 0-1 8; SCHALLER, Mark 1-3 1-2 4; JUTTON, Dave 1-3 0-0 3; MIOLAN, Juan 1-2 0-0 3; FISH, Derrick 0-0 0-0 0; MAGGIACOMO, Dave 0-6 0-0 0. Totals 26-58 5-13 61. SUNY Brockport................ 33 26 - 59 SUNY Cortland................. 35 26 - 61 3-point goals-SUNY Brockport 4-17 (CHEVES, Jerry 2-3; WILKES, Mychal 1-5; BELLUCCI, Ben 1-4; AMPARO, Kenny 0-1; RUBERTONE, Dan 0-1; ROTHER, Jon 0-3), SUNY Cortland 4-14 (JUTTON, Dave 1-3; SCHALLER, Mark 1-2; RANIERI, Frank 1-2; MIOLAN, Juan 1-1; MAGGIACOMO, Dave 0-6). Fouled out--SUNY Brockport-BELLUCCI, Ben, SUNY Cortland-SKRELJA, Simon. Rebounds-SUNY Brockport 30 (AMPARO, Kenny 7; ROTHER, Jon 7), SUNY Cortland 38 (HEADLEY, Rod 10). Assists-SUNY Brockport 11 (WILKES, Mychal 4), SUNY Cortland 13 (SKRELJA, Simon 4). Total fouls-SUNY Brockport 14, SUNY Cortland 16. A-925