The Cortland men’s basketball team celebrates a victory over Old Westbury Saturday night on Long Island (Peter Blanchard/Cortland Voice)
OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. - Zach Lydon (Elizaville/Stissing Mountain) scored 20 points and grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds as Cortland defeated Old Westbury on the road, 90-66, in non-league men's basketball action. The teams were playing for the first time since the 1983-84 season.
Cortland won its sixth straight game and improved to 8-1 on the season. The Red Dragons are among the "others receiving votes" section in the latest D3hoops.com national Top 25.
Lydon hit 9-of-12 shots from the floor, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range. Justin Cooper (Pine Plains/Stissing Mountain) finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists and Carrel Joseph (Deer Park) ended with 14 points. Cooper made two of his three 3-point attempts and all six of his free throws, and Joseph made a season-best four 3-pointers in seven attempts.
James Morales (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane), Jake DiSanto (Rochester/Victor) and Ryan Schmadel (Oriskany) each hit two 3-pointers for the Red Dragons, who as a team shot 16-of-39 (41 percent) from the arc.
Cortland was also a perfect 16-for-16 from the foul line, marking only the second time since the 1999-2000 season that the Red Dragons shot 100 percent from the line with at least 10 attempts (10-for-10 at Geneseo on Dec. 4, 2012). In addition to Cooper's six free throws, Nicky Bonura (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) was 4-for-4 from the stripe, while Brendan Fitzpatrick (Plainview/Plainview-Old Bethpage), Jayden Sutton (Queens/St. Francis Prep) and William Lee Moore (Rochester/Greece Olympia) each went 2-for-2.
Bonura finished with nine points and three assists and Morales netted eight points and led the team with six assists and two blocks. Fitzpatrick added three assists.
Alan McDonald led Old Westbury (3-4) with 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes off the bench. Terrin Roland scored 13 points and handed out four assists.
The host Panthers trailed by only four at 27-23 on a McDonald jumper with 6:16 left in the first half. Cortland pushed its lead to nine on two Bonura free throws and a Morales 3-pointer. Leading by 10, Cortland tallied the last five points of the half, all by Morales in the final minute, and led 41-26 at halftime.
Cortland's lead grew to 31 points at 61-30 in the first six minutes of the second half. The Red Dragons led by 32 points on three occasions in the final eight minutes. Old Westbury finished the game on a 12-4 run to create the final margin.
Cortland will head to Barry University in Miami, Fla., for two games next week at the Third Annual HoopMIA D3 Holiday Shootout. The Red Dragons will face Southern Vermont (currentl
