With its home crowd behind it, the first round of the Division III NCAA tournament proved to be the last round for Plattsburgh State, as the Cards fells to SUNYIT, 71-65 at Memorial Hall Friday.
The Cardinals (21-9) had a dismal first half and buried themselves in a first half hole that ended up being too big to crawl out of.
Although the Cards held the Wildcats’ (26-4) leading scorer, David Golembiowski, to just 4-of-12 shooting, they had trouble with SUNYIT’s No. 2.
Diloo Brown was the story of the first half. He had 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting including going 4-for-6 from three land. After Brown hit a three with 1:28 left in the first half, the Wildcats took their biggest lead of the night, an 18 point lead.
“When the game started, I started to feel my shots,” Brown said.
PSUC couldn’t crack the Wildcats’ 2-3 zone in the first half, shooting 36 percent from the field, while their opponent seemed to have less trouble, shooting 46 percent.
The Cardinals lost the rebound battle as well, 24-16.
They were able to cut the lead to 12, 41-29, at halftime after Carl Munnerlyn responded to another Brown three with one of his own.
The Cards were led by Chris Ruiz’s 10 points at the break.
The second half was, somewhat, a different story. The Cards came out stronger, but Diloo remained resilient to PSUC’s defensive pressure.
The Cardinals were able to slow the Wildcats down by stepping up their defense and finally getting their offense to click, but they could never get completely over their deficit.
The beginning of the half demonstrated the story of the half. The Cards scored on their first two possessions to cut the lead to eight, but Brown answered with another three.
The Cards showed signs of life at the 16:55 mark when Ruiz had a steal and took the rock coast-to-coast, making the score 46-35. In the next possession, the Cards had two offensive rebounds and Errol Daniyan assisted Munnerlyn for a three to cut the lead to eight.
The Wildcats responded and the lead stayed around ten points until the ten minute mark when the Cards switched to a 2-3 zone themselves.
After a full shot clock defensive stop, Steve Thomas found Danny Tangney for three to make the score 54-47. In the next defensive possession, the Cards got another stop, which led to a Ruiz drive to the hole, where he converted the bucket to cut the lead to six.
SUNY IT called a timeout and responded with consecutive unanswered buckets including a two by Brown and an assist from Brown to Thorne Fitzpatrick for a dunk.
After a bucket by Daniyan with just over four minutes remaining, the Cardinals followed up with their best offensive possession of the game.
The Cardinals had great ball movement, which led to Thomas nailing a three, assisted by Ruiz, to get the Cards within two.
Golembiowski would respond in the Wildcat’s next possession and the Cards remained in catch-up mode.
The Cards’ best chance to tie the game came in their next possession when Daniyan was sent to the line with the team down four.
He made the first, but missed his second of the two. Ruiz grabbed an offensive rebound, which led to Munnerlyn getting a wide open look for three. It was a rare miss on an off night for Munnerlyn who shot 3-for-12 in the game.
With just less than two minutes left, Kevin Capiello hit a three to give the Wildcats a seven-point lead. It was the only three of the night for the team by a player other than Brown.
Although the shot seemed to be a dagger, the Cards used full court pressure against the Wildcats and came up with a couple steals, but they had trouble converting on their opportunities.
Ruiz cut the lead back to three after an offensive rebound that led to him converting a put back, while being fouled in the process. Clutching his left wrist, in obvious pain, as he stepped to the line, Ruiz missed the free throw.
Then, with just less than 20 seconds left in the game, SUNYIT’s Aaron Swancott was fouled and sent to the line. He missed the first of a one-and-one, which led to Steve Thomas pushing the ball up the floor, down by three.
He tried passing the ball in traffic to three-point-threat Tangney for three, but it was intercepted.
“We came back and we had a chance,” Ruiz said. “We didn’t make the plays at the end.”
A final fast break dunk by Fitzpatrick put the official end to the Cards’ 10-game win streak and their season.
“Plattsburgh’s a phenomenal team,” SUNYIT Head Coach Kevin Grimmer said. “They were behind the whole game. They never gave up. They had just as good a shot down the stretch as we did.”
Brown ended the game with 31 points.
The Cards were led by Ruiz and Thomas, who had 18 points each. Daniyan also added 17 points and nine rebounds.
“I thought we fought hard, but we didn’t quite make the plays in the end, which is something I think we’ve grown accustomed to doing all year,” PSUC Head Coach Tom Curle said. “I’m very proud of the players,” Curle said.
SUNYIT advances to play Medaille in the second round of the tournament in Memorial Hall at 7 tonight. Medaille advanced after beating Empire 8 champion Nazareth with some heroics from Hack Keith.
With time winding down and Medaille down two, Keith hit a buzzer-beater from just inside the three-point arc to tie the game at 65 and send the game to overtime.
Nazareth had held the lead for the last 25:54 of the game.
Medaille went on to outscore Nazareth 13-7 in the extra session and advance to the second round.
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