Cobleskill, N.Y.: The SUNY Cobleskill men's basketball team suffered a second half collapse at home on Saturday afternoon in an 81-59 North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) loss to the Wildcats of SUNY Polytechnic Institute at the Iorio Gymnasium. The loss drops the Fighting Tigers to 2-15 overall on the campaign including a 2-7 record in league play while the Wildcats improve to 8-9 overall on the year with a 7-3 NEAC record to date.

The Fighting Tigers came out playing aggressively in front of an enthusiastic home crowd battling the much bigger Wildcats throughout the first half before heading into the locker room trailing by a 35-32 margin. However the second half proved to be a different story as the visitors connected on an impressive 15-of-27 shots, 55.6%, from the field while connecting on 13-of-18, 72.2%, free throw attempts to  easily outdistance the Orange & Black.

Once again Cobleskill struggled to hold their own in the paint as the Wildcats out rebounded their hosts by a 41-20 margin to go with a 46-24 advantage in points in the paint.
The Orange & Black were led in scoring by junior swingman Frank D'Esti, Vestal, N.Y., Vestal High School/Broome Community College, who netted 13 points in the contest and by junior guard Ralph Erickson, Melrose, N.Y., LaSalle, Institute, who scored 10 points to go with three rebounds in a reserve role.

The Fighting Tigers will next be in action on Wednesday February 3^rd when they host the Wildcats of Cazenovia College in NEAC action beginning at 5:00 p.m.