Lancaster, Pa.: The Month of March came in like a Fighting Tiger as the SUNY Cobleskill men's basketball team won their first North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Championship and punched their ticket to the 2015 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship Tournament on Sunday afternoon by defeating the host Chargers of Lancaster Bible College 49-46 in the league's championship game. The Fighting Tigers, who will be making their first NCAA Division III Tournament appearance by virtue of the victory, improve to 17-10 overall on the season while the Chargers fall to 24-3 overall with the loss.

After senior guard Alexis Nunez, White Plains, N.Y., White Plains High School, scored the game's first basket to give the Fighting Tigers a 2-0 lead, the Orange & Black played from behind the rest of the first period going into the locker room trailing the Chargers 28-22 at the break. However the second half would see momentum swing towards the road team as Cobleskill took the lead on the strength of a 10-3 run that gave them a 32-31 advantage with 14:24 left in the half when junior center Travis Woods, Mount Upton, N.Y., Unatego High School, scored on a lay-up off an offensive rebound.

Down the stretch the two NEAC Division Champions battled back-and-fourth with five ties and nine lead changes with Lancaster Bible holding the lead at 46-45 with 2:30 remaining in regulation. After a series of miss shots and turnovers the Fighting Tigers took the lead for good when with 47 seconds remaining in the game Alexis Nunez penetrated and found Travis Woods alone under the basket for a lay-up and a 47-46 lead.

On the next possession Lancaster Bible turned the ball back over to the Fighting Tigers forcing them to foul freshman guard Malik Chambers, West Point, N.Y., James I. O'Neil High School, with 22 seconds left to play. Chambers converted on both free throw attempts to give Cobleskill a 49-46 lead.
The Charges had two subsequent three-point opportunities to tie the game that missed and when junior forward C.J. Dunston's, Elkton, Md., Elkton Christian High School, attempt was off the mark with at the buzzer; the Fighting Tigers were headed for the big dance.

Once again Nunez led the Cobleskill offensive attack following up his 33 point/four assist semi-final performance with a game high of 19 points to lead all scorers and one extremely important assist while senior forward Cortrell King, Brentwood, N.Y., Upper Christian Reading Room High School/Suffolk Community College, came off the bench to contribute an impressive 11 points, five rebounds and two assists and Travis Woods had eight points to go with five rebounds on the afternoon.

The Fighting Tigers will now wait of the NCAA Division III Tournament Selection Committee to meet with tournament selections and pairings being released via video stream on Monday March 2 on NCAA.com.