Sortino’s 48 Helps Lakers Advance
Brian Sortino’s Career High of 48 Points Leads Lakers to Win
Senior guard Brian Sortino had a career high 48 points and played the entire game to lead the Oswego State Lakers to a one point victory over the Buffalo State Bengals 84–83 in overtime. The biggest play Sortino made was one of his 6 assists. On Oswego’s final possession Sortino was double teamed and passed out of it to a wide open Jamir Ferebee who put up a shot and got blocked, but it was goaltending. Ferebee a junior finished the game with 14 points in 44 minutes. The Bengals got one last opportunity to pull off the upset. A defensive miscommunication left sophomore Ryniek Holloway missed a three pointer at the buzzer. For the game the Bengals were 6–15 from behind the arc.
Oswego coach Jason Leone said postgame “ Buffalo State is an incredibly resilient team and their seniors played incredibly.” In their 3 wins over the Bengals the Lakers won each game by a single point.
Oswego had an opportunity to win the game in regulation where they ran an isolation with Sortino. “ I never call a timeout in that spot because I don’t want them to change defense and also I want the ball in Brian’s hands.” said coach Leone. Sortino on the final play said “ I am trying to get to the rim.”
The game was back and forth neither team was able to pull away. The largest lead was 6 points and the lead changed 25 times. One area that was not close was points in the paint where Buffalo State outscored Oswego 42–20. Oswego only committed 7 turnovers which led to 8 Bengal points. The Lakers forced 13 turnovers which led to 21 points. The Lakers shot 55% from 3 and went to the free throw line 28 times including Sortino 19 times himself.
Lovell Smith led the attack for the Bengals with 19 points in 44 minutes, but that was not enough on this night. Smith a senior finishes his career with 1,393 points the fourth most in school history. Jordan Glover another Bengal senior finished the game with 14 points in 38 minutes. Coach Leone said after the game “ It’s hard to watch seniors leave”. The Bengals finish the season with a record of 17–9 (10–8) in SUNYAC.
As for the Lakers they will play Oneonta on Saturday afternoon for the SUNYAC championship. Coach Leone said “ they are very athletic and they have a point guard who likes to throw it up, how do you coach against that.” In the regular season the teams split their 2 meetings with each team winning on their respective home court. Coach Leone was asked on if he was confident his team could at least grab an at large bid in the NCAA tournament he said “ we have to win tomorrow, we can’t think about an at large bid”. The Lakers hope that this year they are able to win the Conference finals after losing last year to Cortland.
