The Tompkins Cortland men's basketball team held off a late rally by SUNY Broome to post a 73-66 win at home Friday. The Panthers have won three straight to improve to 5-1 in the Mid-State Athletic Conference and 7-4 overall. Broome is now 0-5 in the MSAC and 2-9 overall.
The game was back-and-forth in the first half, with 12 lead changes and the biggest lead coming with the Panthers up 32-28 at the half. An increase in intensity coming out of the break helped the Panthers stretch the lead. An 18-6 run to open the second half put the Panthers up 50-34 with 11:25 left to play. The lead was still comfortable with 6:43 when Marven Louissaint (Brooklyn/Erasmus Hall H.S.) scored a layup to make it 56-42, but Broome went on an 11-3 run over the next three minutes to close the gap to 59-53. A free throw by Devonte Cheatham (Bronx/Herbert H. Lehman H.S.) and a bucket by Justin Sykes (Harlem/Lyons Community School) slowed the surge, but the Hornets answered with three-pointers on consecutive trips sandwiched around a Sykes layup to pull within five, 64-59 with two minutes left.
A driving layup by Logan Nordman (Onondaga/Onondaga H.S.) and a pair of free throws by Sykes built the lead back to nine at 68-59 with 1:11 left to play. The Hornets made one last push, getting to within four points at 68-64 with 43.3 seconds left, but the home team sealed the win at the charity stripe, with Michael Sinclair (Brooklyn/Academy for College Prep) making 5-of-6 over the final 21.5 seconds to clinch the victory.
Sykes led the balanced scoring attack with a career-high 19 points while also grabbing 5 rebounds. Nordman followed with 14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Deamontae Riley (Buffalo/Burgard H.S.) finished with 10 points to go with 5 rebound and Sinclair ended up with 8 points. Emond Frazier (Center Moriches/Center Moriches H.S.) led the team with 7 rebounds and tied with Nordman for the team lead in assists with 4.
Looking ahead
The Panthers now head out on a five-game road trip, starting Sunday afternoon at Genesee Community College.