The State University of New York at New Paltz men's basketball team takes on Oswego State Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the SUNYAC Semifinal, a contest that promises to be entertaining given how the two teams fared against each other during the regular season.
The Hawks, who are coming off a thrilling 84-81 victory over SUNY Cortland in the quarterfinal on Tuesday, recently defeated the Lakers Feb. 11 in what was one of the biggest wins in program history. SUNY New Paltz got beat badly at Oswego on Jan. 29, but upended the SUNYAC's No. 1 seed in the Hawk Center 64-63, snapping the Lakers' 17-game winning streak at a time when they were ranked 14th in the country.
The Hawks, who finished the regular season with a 14-10 record, went 1-2 after the major victory, but are coming into the weekend off a big home triumph. Rylan Blondo scored a team-high 25 in the quarterfinal win and had nine rebounds, while Sean St. Lucia tallied 13 points and six assists. Isaiah Bien-Aise was spectacular in just 24 minutes, scoring 18 points and corralling 12 rebounds. Oswego State finished the regular season 23-2 and are 3-0 since Feb. 11, and completed a dominant win, 104-55, over Fredonia State on Feb. 19. The top seeded Lakers, the hosting team for the SUNYAC tournament, received a bye into the conference semifinals.
SUNY New Paltz will face a squad with revenge on their minds, while the Hawks look to continue riding momentum. At the forefront for Oswego State are Jeremiah Sparks, Devin Green, and Julien Crittendon. The Lakers' three-headed monster averaged a combined 33.8 points per game during the regular season, accounting for 42 percent of the team's 80.5 points per game. Crittendon averaged 11 points per contest, 0.4 behind both Sparks and Green, over 25 games, but was just 0-for-4 shooting on Feb. 11. Oswego State's team point per game average was tops in the SUNYAC, 3.7 points better than SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Brockport, who each averaged 76.8 points per game. The Lakers are looking to improve on the 39.6 percent from the field they registered as a unit in the last meeting against the Hawks, which was well below their season average of 44.0 percent shooting. 
SUNY New Paltz, meanwhile, brings its own potent offense to the table. Its 44.2 percent shooting was second in the conference to the Red Dragons of Cortland's 44.4 percent, and Blondo's 18.1 points per game were second in the conference to SUNY Cortland's Austin Grunder, who averaged 22.3 points. Hawks sophomore Solomon Neuhaus' 11.9 points were second on the team, and his 35.5 percent shooting from 3-point range was 13th best in the conference. Lucas Seyoum, who averaged 8.7 points, shot 37.6 percent from 3-point range during the regular season, good for seventh-best in the SUNYAC. Hawks forward Tyreik Frazier also figures to be an important factor in the paint on Friday night. His 2.2 blocks per contest was the second-best average in the SUNYAC, and he averaged 5.6 rebounds per game in just a shade over 19 minutes per game.
SUNY New Paltz has very strong guard play with Blondo and St. Lucia, and very good interior rebounding and defense with Frazier and Isaiah Bien-Aise that will counter the Lakers' balanced offense. Frazier and Bien-Aise, both of whom had eight rebounds in the last matchup between the two teams, look to continue to maintain that interior advantage on Friday. Both players gave Oswego State forwards Christian Simmons and Brendan Mulson problems in the second meeting, collectively outrebounding the pair, 16-10. St. Lucia added six rebounds in the game, allowing the Hawks to secure a 34-30 rebounding edge.
Both guard play and rebounding, as well as the 3-point shooting of Neuhaus, a SUNY New Paltz starter, will be huge in dictating Friday night's winner. The sophomore shot just 2-for-7 from 3-point range in the quarterfinal, and he is unquestionably motivated to improve on that output. The Lakers, meanwhile, will look for a better game from Sparks, who despite scoring in double-figures on Feb. 11 with 15 points, made just five of 13 shot attempts.
Friday night's clash from Oswego sets up to be a great game that will be the rubber match for the season for both squads, as the winner will punch their ticket to the SUNYAC Championship game. The title game, which will take place Saturday will be contested between either the Hawks or Oswego State and the winner of the Golden Eagles of SUNY Brockport and SUNY Oneonta, who play in the other SUNYAC quarterfinal game Friday at 5:30 p.m.
SUNYAC Semifinal Promo
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