The Geneseo men's basketball team split their first two games of SUNYAC play last weekend, losing to Cortland on Friday night, but coming from behind to defeat Oswego on Saturday.
Friday, the Knights never recovered from a slow start and lost, 77-56. The Red Dragons started the game on a 25-2 run and had a 38-point halftime lead. Geneseo managed to mount a comeback in the second half, outscoring Cortland 42-25.
Geneseo was led by sophomore John Drazan, who had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Abram Miller added 13 points.
Geneseo managed to bounce back from the loss and defeated Oswego in dramatic fashion on Saturday. After being down by 10 with five minutes left in the second half, Geneseo came back and won the game, 66-65. Sophomore Marcus Hoy capped off the comeback, sinking two free throws with three seconds left in the game to take the lead.
Head coach Steve Minton said getting the first SUNYAC win and not starting the season 0-2 in conference was "huge." Minton added, "Each game is so incredibly important in the conference … it really was a great thing for our guys, to give them a little confidence."
Hoy led the way for the Knights, scoring 18 points in 24 minutes off the bench. Senior Brandon Simpson and classmate Kyle Stevens were also major contributors for Geneseo, with Simpson adding 13 points and Stevens scoring 12 points and seven rebounds.
Sophomore Ethan Estabrooks scored nine points, including two big three-pointers during the last few minutes.
"It was good to get a win … we had a lot of people step up down the stretch with Mike Baker finding Ethan and myself for open shots," Hoy said.
One of the big reasons for Geneseo's victory against Oswego was their ability to create turnovers. The Lakers turned the ball over 24 times which helped offset a poor shooting effort by the Knights.
Geneseo shot only 57 percent from the charity stripe for the game and missed all 10 of their shots from beyond the arc in the first half.
Minton said forcing the turnovers was "very big," adding that Oswego had difficulty moving up court against Geneseo's 2-2-1 press in the first half. The Knights are now 1-3 overall on the season and 1-1 in SUNYAC play.
Geneseo doesn't play again until Dec. 31 when they head out to Washington to play St. Martin's University. During the long layoff, Minton said the team will "spend a lot of time on offense and offensive execution," adding he feels the offense needs to play better than they have so far. They return to conference play on Jan. 5 at SUNY Brockport.