Ithaca, N.Y.: The SUNY Cobleskill men's basketball team dropped an 85-61 decision to the Red Dragons of SUNY Cortland on Friday evening in the opening round of the 2015 Contaca Classic hosted by SUNY Cortland and Ithaca College with Friday evening's games begin played at Ithaca College's Ben Light Gymnasium. With the loss the Fighting Tigers fall to 0-3 overall on the year to date while the Red Dragons improve to 2-0 overall.

The Fighting Tigers got off to a strong start battling with the Red Dragons throughout the opening stanza eventually heading into the locker room trailing 34-33. In the second half Cobleskill continued to fluster Cortland eventually both offensively and defensively early on moving out to a 46-40 lead at the 15:06 mark of the half. Then after the Dragons tied the contest at 49-49 with 13:47 things went south quickly for the visitors as a series of turnovers, poor rebounding and missed shots led to a 17-3 Cortland run with gave them a 66-52 lead with 7:16 remaining and essentially decided the outcome.

The turnover line continued to haunt Cobleskill as 19 turnovers led to 25 Cortland points on the evening while the Red Dragons enjoyed a 38-32 advantage on the backboards in the contest.

Junior swingman Brian Jackson, Bronx, N.Y., Global Enterprise Academy, once again led the team in scoring with 13 points to go with four rebounds while sophomore forward Christian Cooper, Gilboa, N.Y., Gilboa-Conesville High School, and junior swingman Frank D'Esti, Vestal, N.Y., Vestal High School/Broome Community College, each tallied 11 points on the night.

The Fighting Tigers will next be in action on Saturday afternoon, November 21^st., when they travel to Cortland, N.Y. to face the Bombers of Ithaca College in their final game of the 2015 Contaca Classic at SUNY Cortland's Whitney T. Corey Gymnasium with tip-off at 2:00 p.m.