Men’s Basketball Wins Overtime Thriller At Utica
UTICA, N.Y. – The SUNY Geneseo men’s basketball team won an overtime thriller at Utica on Saturday afternoon, pulling out a 77-74 victory. A layup with one second left from Colin Gentile sent the game to overtime, where the Knights were able to pull out the win and improve to 8-6 overall and 4-2 in Empire 8 play.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Geneseo found themselves in a hole early, trailing by 11 points at the halfway mark of the first half. Down 23-12, the Knights went on a 10-0 run to get back in the game and cut the deficit to one point. The run was propeled by a pair of three pointers from sophomore guard Trevor Hofer, and layups by Josh Garelle and Robert Pericolosi.
- Hofer stayed hot from behind the arc, draining another shot from deep later in the half to give Geneseo its first lead of the game since 2-0. A late jumper from Ethan Meisel off a pass from Landon Brunken helped the Knights take a 40-37 lead to halftime.
- The Knights held the lead for the beginning of the second half, but Utica wouldn’t go away and ended up taking a five point lead with 10 minutes left to play. Strong defensive efforts Garelle and Hofer helped Geneseo stay within striking distance down the stretch, then a steal by Hofer down by two with 10 seconds left helped set up a last second layup from Gentile to force overtime.
- Garelle scored the first four points of overtime to put the Knights ahead 74-70, but the Pioneers were able to tie it late at 74. Following a big defensive rebound from Pericolosi, Hofer drew a foul and knocked down both free throws to go ahead by two points with 15 seconds left. The Geneseo defense came up clutch again, and pulled out the 77-74 win.
QUICK FACTS:
- Garelle led the offense with 22 points on 10-18 shooting from the field, while Hofer (17), Brunken (13), and Pericolosi (10) joined him in double digit scoring.
- Pericolosi was dominant on the boards, grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds in a difficult rebounding matchup.
- Brunken delivered an incredible performance for Geneseo, logging a career-high 31 minutes while running the offense in the second half for the Knights and playing solid defense off the bench.
- Hofer went 3-5 from deep in the game, to improve his season total to 50 percent at 28-56.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Geneseo will return to Schrader Gym