Blue Devils suffer close loss against Cortland, bounce back with first win of the season

KYLE GEORGER
Special to The Leader

DARCIE HENNARD/ Photo Editor

A Cortland player pressures sophomore guard Kevin Saunders. Fredonia came up short at the buzzer with the final score 57-56.

The men's basketball team recently played host to the Cortland Red Dragons in their fourth game of the 2007-08 season. Cortland, one of Fredonia's toughest competitors, came into the game having knocked off nationally ranked Baldwin- Wallace last week in the Penn State-Behrend Tournament. Fredonia was looking for their first win of the season in the continuation of the tournament.

"There are so many solid teams out there," said senior center Kyle Gordon. "Playing in this tournament gives our team confidence for the big match-ups we have coming up."

The Blue Devils used the hometown crowd on Friday Nov. 30 to their advantage, jumping to a quick lead. To their dismay, the Red Dragons quickly recovered. The two teams exchanged baskets back and forth as the game came down to the wire.

With just under seven seconds remaining in regulation, Fredonia found themselves trailing by three points. Sophomore point guard Brad Cooper gained possession and pushed the ball up the court quickly, looking for the game tying threepointer to force it into overtime. Cooper's effort came up short as his shot grazed the front of the rim at the buzzer, sending Cortland home with the win.

"This was a tough loss for us because it was our first conference game," said sophomore Kevin Saunders. "It would have been good to start at 1-0 but now we just have to bounce back and learn from the mistakes we made tonight."

Cooper finished with a game high of 15 points, including three three-pointers. Gordon added 11 points, while junior guard Wayne Davis added 10.

The men's basketball team went back to work when they traveled to Pennsylvania to take on the Pitt-Bradford Panthers on Monday Dec. 3.

Similar to the game against the Red Dragons, the score was close all the way through the last minute of play. The Blue Devils came back from a seven-point deficit to open up the second half. It was at this point when they finally tied the game at 51 with less than four minutes remaining.

With less than 10 seconds left, a foul was called on the Panthers that sent Cooper to the line. He sank both free throws and put the Blue Devils up by one, 57-56. The Panthers had a chance to win in the final seconds but a lay up was not produced in time, leaving the Blue Devils with their first win of the season. The final score was 57-56.

Sophomore guard Greg MacBride described this as a big team effort.

"As a team we have become very close," MacBride said. "I believe that it enables us to rely on each other when the game is close at the end. I expect us to be the beginning of something special as we continue to grow throughout the season."

The men's basketball team will take on Medaille at 7 p.m. on Saturday Dec. 15 at home.