Kling made 7-of-9 shots from the floor and Bennett hit 6-of-9 attempts. Freshman Scott Morton (Syracuse/Westhill) scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting and junior Scott Sciera (Livonia) made all four of his field goal attempts and finished with nine points. Geneseo shot 72 percent (18-of-25) in the opening half and finished the game at 59 percent.
Junior Dave Maggiacomo (Pleasant Valley/Arlington) paced Cortland with 20 points. He made a career-high six three-pointers. Senior Frank Ranieri (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) finished with 14 points, senior Scott Taggart (Sidney Center/Franklin) scored 10 points and senior Simon Skrelja (Hastings-on-Hudson/Hastings) recorded seven assists and six rebounds. Ranieri, Taggart and Skrelja were playing in their final regular-season home game and were honored prior to the contest.
Cortland’s last lead was 4-2 with 18:39 left in the first half. Geneseo finished the first half on a 9-2 run and led 39-29, then pushed their lead to 17 points at 56-39 on a Kling jumper with 12:45 remaining.
The Red Dragons slowly chipped away at their deficit and eventually got back to within 64-58 on two Skrelja free throws with 6:06 to go. Geneseo’s lead was still at six with under four minutes left before Greg Spears (Olean) banked in a desperation three-pointer with the shot clock expiring to extend the margin to nine.
The closest Cortland got was 74-70 after a Ranieri three-pointer, Cortland’s 10th of the game, with 19 seconds left. Bennett sank two free throws with 14 seconds remaining, however, and Cortland missed three treys in the closing seconds.
SUNY Geneseo vs SUNY Cortland 2/17/06 8 p.m. at Cortland, NY (Corey Gym) SUNY GENESEO 76, SUNY CORTLAND 70 SUNY GENESEO (12-13,7-9 SUNYAC) KLING, Joe 7-9 6-8 20; BENNETT, Brian 6-9 3-3 17; MORTON, Scott 5-8 1-2 12; SPEARS, Greg 4-8 0-0 9; SCIERA, Scott 4-4 1-2 9; KITSON, Tarik 2-4 1-2 5; MCDONNELL, Steve 1-2 0-0 2; KELLEY, Nick 0-3 2-4 2; PAPINCAK, John 0-2 0-0 0; HOWE, Jeff 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-49 14-21 76. SUNY CORTLAND (21-3,13-2 SUNYAC) MAGGIACOMO, Dave 6-11 2-4 20; RANIERI, Frank 6-18 1-1 14; TAGGART, Scott 4-6 2-4 10; JUTTON, Dave 3-10 0-0 8; NIEHOFF, Carson 2-2 0-0 5; HEADLEY, Rod 0-6 4-4 4; SKRELJA, Simon 1-5 2-3 4; MIOLAN, Juan 1-2 0-0 2; SCHALLER, Mark 1-2 0-0 2; NALLS, Elbert 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 24-62 12-18 70. SUNY Geneseo.................. 39 37 - 76 SUNY Cortland................. 29 41 - 70 3-point goals-SUNY Geneseo 4-10 (BENNETT, Brian 2-3; MORTON, Scott 1-3; SPEARS, Greg 1-2; KELLEY, Nick 0-2), SUNY Cortland 10-28 (MAGGIACOMO, Dave 6-11; JUTTON, Dave 2-8; RANIERI, Frank 1-4; NIEHOFF, Carson 1-1; MIOLAN, Juan 0-1; SCHALLER, Mark 0-1; SKRELJA, Simon 0-1; HEADLEY, Rod 0-1). Fouled out--SUNY Geneseo-None, SUNY Cortland-SKRELJA, Simon. Rebounds-SUNY Geneseo 30 (KITSON, Tarik 7), SUNY Cortland 32 (HEADLEY, Rod 7). Assists-SUNY Geneseo 12 (SPEARS, Greg 4; KLING, Joe 4), SUNY Cortland 16 (SKRELJA, Simon 7). Total fouls-SUNY Geneseo 14, SUNY Cortland 22. A-1100