Cobleskill, NY: The Cobleskill men's basketball team used a strong second half to defeat Hartwick 74-60 on Saturday afternoon in the Iorio Gymnasium. The Fighting Tigers improve to 2-0 on the season while the Hawks of Hartwick fall to 0-2 overall.
Robert Long (Rochester, NY/McQuaid Jesuit)) led the Tigers with a game-high 23 points on 9-15 shooting. Senior
Iziah Pigott (Brooklyn, NY/Adams Street Academy) finished with a packed stat line of 19 points, eight assists, four rebounds and three steals. Swingman
Jeremy Rosario (Colonie, NY) chipped in 12 points and
Chalik Oxley (Manhattan, NY/Graphic Arts) led the Tigers on the boards with 10 rebounds.
The first half saw a defensive battle from both teams. After trailing 2-0, the Tigers went a 9-0 run fueled by five points from Long. Hartwick answered with a run of their own and the game sat at 11-11 with 12:49 left in the half.
After trading baskets for the next few minutes, Hartwick led 18-15 after a Cumberbatch layup at the 6:31 mark and then pushed their led to 26-22 with 1:44 to play in the half. Cobleskill answered as Pigott who found
Chace Peterson (Troy, NY) and then Long for layups to tie the game at 26-26. The Tigers looked to take the led headed into the half, but a buzzer beater jumper by Daniel Oyediran gave the Hawks a 29-28 advantage.
At the half, Long led the Tigers with nine points (4-5 FG%) while Pigott's added seven points, four assists and three rebounds. For Hartwick, it was Dan Oyediran with 10 points. The Hawks defensive held the high-power Tigers offensive to only shooting 36.7 percent and 15.4 percent from three-point range.
Hartwick jumped out to a 42-39 lead before the Tigers scored 15 straight points in the matter of three minutes to capture a 54-42 lead and take control of the game with 11:00 minutes to play.
Cobleskill pushed their lead to 63-49 after a Pigott layup assisted by
Andre Starks (Rochester, NY/Fairport). The Hawks battled back to close the lead to 10 points, 63-53, but then Cobleskill used another swing of momentum courtesy of a Rosario dunk to go on a 10-0 run and put the game out of reach, 73-53, with 3:40 left in the game. The game finished 74-60.
The Fighting Tigers shot 46.6 percentage from the field compared to Hartwick's 37.9 percent. The Fighting Tigers dominated the transition game outscoring Hartwick 24-7 in fast break points. The Hawks held a 43-30 rebounding advantage, but Cobleskill dished out 21 assists to Hartwick's 10.
Cobleskill returns to action on Tuesday, November 14
th, as they host Union College in the Iorio Gymnasium at 7:00 p.m. in a non-conference game.
