The victory is also the 200th career win for Cortland head coach Tom Spanbauer. He is 200-125 in 12 seasons coaching, including a 188-112 mark in 11 years at Cortland.
Taggart made 9-of-11 shots from the field and also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Ranieri finished with seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks and junior Dave Maggiacomo (Pleasant Valley/Arlington) connected on 5-of-10 three-pointers and scored 15 points. Senior Simon Skrelja (Hastings-on-Hudson/Hastings) registered six rebounds and three steals and sophomore Mark Schaller (Rochester/Greece Athena) each dished out three assists.
Junior John Hauser (East Williston/Chaminade) led New Paltz (5-19, 2-13) with 17 points, four assists and three steals. Junior Matt Irwin (Brooklyn/St. Edmund Prep) scored 16 points and senior Keith Crichlow (Central Islip) recorded 14 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Hauser and Irwin each scored 13 of their points in the second half.
Cortland held just a 26-22 lead with 5:36 left in the first half, but finished the period on an 11-2 run, keyed by two Maggaicomo treys, and led 37-24. The Red Dragons’ lead grew to 49-32 five minutes into the second half. The Hawks rallied within 53-46 with just over 10 minutes left, but two Ranieri baskets and a Taggart hoop pushed the lead back to 13 with 7:40 left and the margin stayed in double figures the remainder of the game.
SUNY Cortland vs SUNY New Paltz 2/14/06 8 p.m. at New Paltz, NY (Elting Gymnasium) SUNY CORTLAND 71, SUNY NEW PALTZ 59 SUNY CORTLAND (21-2, 13-1 SUNYAC) RANIERI, Frank 10-17 0-0 20; TAGGART, Scott 9-11 2-5 20; MAGGIACOMO, Dave 5-10 0-0 15; HEADLEY, Rod 2-7 1-6 5; JUTTON, Dave 2-5 0-0 5; SKRELJA, Simon 2-5 0-0 4; SCHALLER, Mark 1-1 0-0 2; MIOLAN, Juan 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-57 3-11 71. SUNY NEW PALTZ (5-19, 2-13 SUNYAC) HAUSER, John 5-12 6-6 17; IRWIN, Matt 5-12 4-4 16; CRICHLOW, Keith 6-10 2-5 14; KAIBLE, Bobby 1-2 2-2 5; LEWIS, Steven 2-5 1-3 5; SUGRUE, Jimmy 1-5 0-0 2; ROBINSON, Luke 0-0 0-0 0; RICHARDS, Jerome 0-0 0-0 0; HAUSER, Matt 0-6 0-0 0. Totals 20-52 15-20 59. SUNY Cortland................. 37 34 - 71 SUNY New Paltz................ 21 38 - 59 3-point goals-SUNY Cortland 6-16 (MAGGIACOMO, Dave 5-10; JUTTON, Dave 1-3; HEADLEY, Rod 0-1; SKRELJA, Simon 0-1; MIOLAN, Juan 0-1), SUNY New Paltz 4-14 (IRWIN, Matt 2-6; KAIBLE, Bobby 1-1; HAUSER, John 1-3; SUGRUE, Jimmy 0-2; HAUSER, Matt 0-2). Fouled out--SUNY Cortland-SKRELJA, Simon, SUNY New Paltz-None. Rebounds-SUNY Cortland 36 (TAGGART, Scott 8), SUNY New Paltz 28 (CRICHLOW, Keith 8). Assists-SUNY Cortland 14 (HEADLEY, Rod 3; SCHALLER, Mark 3), SUNY New Paltz 10 (HAUSER, John 4). Total fouls-SUNY Cortland 17, SUNY New Paltz 12. A-100