Release courtesy of ESF Athletics
The Mighty Oaks come home with a big 81-62 road conference win against Albany College of Pharmacy Wednesday night! ESF led for the entirety of the game and the win moves ESF to 3-0 in conference and 9-7 on the season.
The contest at Albany's White Gymnasium opened with a 5-0 Mighty Oaks quick lead off of a Jared Bard 3-pointer and a Tyler Kuhn hoop at the rim. Albany answered with four quick points to bring the score to 5-4 but ESF put the clamps down defensively pushing the lead to as many as 22 in the opening frame. Captilizing in transition with Ryan Caldwell's 10 first half rebounds and Tyler Kuhn's five boards, the Mighty Oaks were able to push the tempo on the offensive end as Jared Bard hit three treys and the bench added key buckets from Zane Paradies and Cory Rogers to give ESF a 32-10 lead with just 2:40 to play in the half. After an Albany timeout, the home team closed the half on an 8-0 run by ESF still held a 32-18 halftime advantage. Jared Bard led the ESF charge with 3 trifects and 9 points.
Albany started the second frame with a slower pace and were able to settle in with their zone attack, drawing the Mighty Oaks to just a 51-44 lead with 8:30 left in the contest. ESF's transition game kicked in again as Justin VanDuLuitgaarden and Ryan Caldwell made some key buckets at the rime and Jared Bard continued his hot shooting, splashing another 3 treys in the half (including a four point player). With the lead at 61-51 ESF with four minutes remaining, a Ryan Caldwell slam and key free-throws helped the Mighty Oaks close the last four minutes on a 20-11 run and wrapping up the 81-62 conference road win.
Jared Bard set a career high with 23 points including 6 treys and 6 rebounds. Ryan Caldwell (26 points, 15 boards) and Tyler Kuhn (15 points, 11 boards) both came home with double-doubles and Dan Treadwell added 5 assists for the Mighty Oaks.
The win gives ESF nine victories on the season, setting a program record for wins and puts the Mighty oaks in first place in the HVIAC at 3-0.
ESF returns to the court at home January 28 when they host Vaughn College at ITC-Syracuse with a 3 pm tip.
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Release courtesy of ACPHS Athletics
ACPHS fell at home to SUNY-ESF on Wednesday 81-62. With the loss, the Panthers drop to 2-10 on the year and 1-1 in the HVIAC, while SUNY-ESF moves to 9-7 and 3-0 respectively.
ACPHS came out flat, going down 12-4 in the opening five minutes. Back-to-back field goals from the Panthers' Sophomore Thomas Chalker (Metuchen, NJ / Metuchen High) and Junior Brandon Votra (Saint Regis Falls, NY) cut the deficit to four, but Votra committed his 2nd foul just minutes later and was forced to take a seat. SUNY-ESF scored the next six capped off by a dunk from ESF's Ryan Caldwell. An ACPHS basket made it 18-10, but the Mighty Oaks followed by seemingly putting the game out of reach. They scored the next 14 points as ACPHS could not get any of their decent looks to go. All together it was a 20-2 run for ESF, and the Panthers found themselves down 32-12. The Panthers scored the last six points of the half, but trailed 32-18 going into the break.
The Panthers made a bit of a game of it in the 2nd half, but could not seem to get over the hump. Every time ACPHS seemed like they were back in it, the Mighty Oaks had an answer. This was most prevalent with just under eight minutes left when a 10-0 run by the Panthers cut the ESF lead all the way down to five. The Mighty Oaks responded with a 5-0 run of their own to bring the lead back to 10 with five minutes left, and ACPHS was never able bring it closer than seven the rest of the way. SUNY-ESF's Ryan Caldwell was the star of night, playing all 40 minutes and leading all scorers with 26 to go along with his 15 rebounds and two assists. ESF got most of the bulk of their scoring from Caldwell, Jared Bard and Tyler Kuhn, the latter two adding 23 and 15 points respectively. Freshman Kyle Matousek led the Panthers with 17 points, with Chalker and Votra each chipping in 11 in a losing effort. The Panthers gave up 40 points in the paint, their most surrendered in a game this season.
ACPHS continues HVIAC play this Saturday, January 21st at home to Davis College at 3pm, while SUNY-ESF has 10 days off before they host Vaughn College on Saturday, January 28th.
