By: Spencer Bates

The Oswego State men’s basketball team tied school history with wins in the first two rounds of the NCAA division. III Championships and a spot in the Sweet 16.

After 64th and 32nd round victories over Hood College and Keene State respectively, the Lakers are poised to write their name in the history books if they knock out Marietta College in the next round.

A four and a half hour drive from their home soil, the Lakers headed into uncharted territory with Hood College in sight for their first game of the weekend. It was only the second time in school history that the Blazers appeared in the NCAA Tournament after their first-ever win in a conference tournament. Meanwhile, for Oswego State, this is their seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament in the past 11 years.

However, Lakers head coach Jason Leone didn’t see this disparity in tournament appearances as any reason for his team to win. Instead, he pointed out that despite the team’s recent presence in the tournament, they are a brand new team.

“A lot of guys who play for us weren’t in our rotation the last time we played, or they’re new, so I don’t think it will affect the game too much,” Leone said. noted.

Another interesting pre-game note is that Hood College played a completely different style of basketball than the Lakers are used to. Their attack on the lights is boosted by twin brothers Mason and Evan Wang. Leone understood that his team was going to have to be resilient and tough in defense if they were to claim victory.

“For a team that averages 35 threes a game, you’re not going to stop them from shooting threes,” Leone said. “What we have emphasized with our players is that we have to try to challenge as many of them as possible. [and] use our length. What you don’t want to do is chase them so much that your defense is spread out and then they can head for the basket.

The size was a clear gap in favor of Oswego State in this game, in which the Lakers were keen to extort. Senior forward Brendan Mulson laid out the plan which was to get at least 15 offensive rebounds in the contest. His teammate Christian Simmons echoed what he thought would win them the game.

“Because we have a little size advantage over these guys, we’re definitely bouncing back and getting some extra opportunities for the team,” Simmons said.

The Lakers started the game slow, trailing nine points at one point in the first half. However, as they found their rhythm, the team bounced back and put up a dominating display to close out the first half which ended in a 13-0 run for Oswego State.

As the rest of the game developed, the Lakers surpassed the 15 offensive rebounds that Mulson was aiming for before earning a hard-fought 82-73 win over the Blazers in the first round. Hood College fought tooth and nail to keep the game close, fouls for free throws deep in the second half. The Wang twins were effective from the start, but as the contest grew, their presence and impact faded.

Hood College’s speed and style was difficult for the Lakers to adapt to, which contributed to the team’s slow start. Afterwards, Leone explained why Hood College was hard to come by in the build-up to the match.

“We couldn’t replicate what they were doing in our training so it was definitely a feeling process, when we started, the start of the game, obviously it didn’t go very well, but I was proud of our guys, we buckled up and made the appropriate adjustments and I think our depth helped us in this game.

Oswego State’s bench players, led by Julien Crittendon, provided more than double the amount of their bench counterparts. Despite the victory, the Lakers knew there was a lot more to work on in order to be prepared for the next day’s game against Keene State which upset No. 20-ranked hosts Swarthmore College in a tight affair. Jamal Achille, who recorded a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds, stressed the importance of embracing their identity as a defensive team heading into the next game.

“I just think I’m able to focus on defence,” Achille said. “We’ve been a great defensive team all year, so that’s really what it comes down to at the end of the day.”

The next day proved to be a new challenge, a new opponent and more expectations. With one more win, the Lakers would tie school history and look like the first-ever Oswego State men’s basketball team to reach the Elite 8.

As he and his team prepared for their round of 16, Leone credited the opponents with the day before. He also praised his team’s resilience in the game after fighting back to secure the win.

“Credit them [Hood College] also, they are really hard to keep… they have a good coach and a great way of playing, very competitive like all these teams are. I was happy with the way we settled in and we really got things done, as the game progressed, which we had talked about. We stopped their second shots, started to change a little better and obviously hurt them on the offensive glass.

Keene State, which was without star player James Anozie in its win over Swarthmore, had breakfast at the same hotel as the Lakers shortly before leaving the lobby to be replaced by their counterparts. The Owls had beaten two top-25 ranked teams in the nation prior to their battle with the Lakers, which Leone paid a lot of attention to as he credited them and their organization.

“Well, it seems like they almost play better when they’re in a sort of hostile underdog role,” Leone said. “Our guys need to know the physique they play in. They are used to being in this tournament and not just being in the tournament, they are playing well, they have pretty deep runs so that will be part of the game.”

Leone’s men understood their mission of physicality and effective attacking as they took the game straight to the Owls without giving them a second to breathe. Jump to a 20-point lead before half-time thanks to 13 points from Achilles and Simmons. The latter shot almost perfectly from behind the arc in the trick, hitting several long-range clutch baskets to build Laker momentum.

Jeremiah Sparks was uncharacteristically quiet in the game against the Owls, scoring just eight points in the entire game. However, it speaks to the depth of the roster that the Lakers still pulled off a massive 84-63 win to move them to the Sweet 16. Achille capped off an incredible weekend with nine more points in the second half, which brought his total for the first two rounds to 39 points. Freshman Ahkee Anderson added 17 points as he was consistent throughout the game as well.

Celebrations erupted in the Tarble Pavilion when the final buzzer sounded, symbolizing a punched ticket to Oswego State in the Sweet 16 for only the third time in history. The duality of the team’s mentality was on full display as they hugged and took celebratory photos in front of the NCAA banner. However, those cheers were short-lived as many players, once the photos were taken, rushed to the dressing rooms, showing that tied school history is not what this team has in sight for the end of his season.

Leone showed up to the post-match press conference soaked, likely by his players pouring him drinks in celebration. However, despite the joyous moment, Leone was quick to recognize the strength and ability of his opponents.

“The race they’ve had here for the last two weeks…they went to UMass-Dartmouth, which they hadn’t beaten at any time in the year, in front of 3,200 people [and] go and win in overtime at home,” Leone said. “Obviously Swarthmore are an amazing program and have a great team this year. The resilience they showed yesterday was both amazing and scary for us.

Leone then explained how happy he was for his team. There was a clear lightness in his voice as he spoke of the nature of his team and the confidence he had in them.

“With our guys, it’s been our team’s theme all year,” Leone said. “The courage, the preparation, the enthusiasm with which we played today was, to me, just awe-inspiring…the higher the stakes, the better we played and today was no different.”

Achille happily reflects on his performance of the previous days. The junior forward who paved the way for the Lakers said he felt good about himself and where his game came from, especially after the team’s shaky start in their game against Hood College the day before.

“I feel good,” said Achille. “I try to let the game really come to me and play as part of the team, see what the defense gives me, play smart, play relaxed. I think we really settled down after yesterday, getting rid of our nerves and today we just played the same basketball we’ve been playing all year.

Leone made some closing remarks before the end of the press conference. First, he noted that while this is important to him and the team, he is all the more filled with joy that there are more people inside and outside the program. who enjoy this moment with them.

“The fact that we have arrived here for the third time in the school’s history makes me really happy,” Leone said. “There are a lot of hard working people. The players, my assistant coaches, our administrators and Div. III the way the model is, it’s really a team effort, so there are a lot of people benefiting from it, which makes me really happy for this school and our department.

Finally, he wanted people to know that this is not where he or his team intend to end up. There’s more business to settle in the form of writing their name in the history books with one more victory.

“The first time we entered the tournament, we were really happy to be there,” Leone said. “Then we started to build our program so that we win games and now I’m really enjoying those expectations that people see our name on the bracket, moving forward and now the next step for us is to get a win the second weekend so all of our energy and all of our preparation will be devoted to it.

In order to secure a victory in the next round, the Lakers must make the long trip to southeast Ohio to face Marietta College at home on March 11. The team will need to build on their resilient and hot start to the tournament in order to overcome the nation’s No. 2-ranked team that is coming off an 88-83 overtime win over the University of Rochester. The Lakers set off Wednesday on their road to writing their names forever in Oswego State history.

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Image provided by Melinda Brancato

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