Farmingdale, NY-- The Sage Colleges' men's basketball team travelled to Farmingdale State College for the quarterfinals of the Skyline Conference tournament on Tuesday night. The game marked the first appearance for the Gators in the conference tournament in the team's four-year history.
No. 4 seeded Farmingdale State posted an 80-65 win over the No. 5 seeded Sage Gators to advance to the semifinals on Thursday and will play next at No. 1 seeded SUNY-Old Westbury at 7 p.m. The Rams improve to 19-7 overall, while the loss puts Sage at 13-13.
FSC held a 36-23 lead at the break as the Ram's top scorer, senior AJ Matthews had only four points in the first half. He finished with a game-high 20 points and 14 rebounds. Sage pulled within nine points, down, 58-49 at 6:26 in the second half but could not get any closer down the stretch. Wilson Molina added 17 points off the bench after hitting 6-of-8 shots from the floor off the bench.
Rookie forward Melvin Ford (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern Regional) poured in a career-best 16 in the game, while adding junior guard Jeff Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia Glenville) also connected for 16 points with eight assists. Senior center Ryan Sager (Stuyvesant, NY/Ichabod Crane) chipped in for nine points but led Sage in rebounding with eight caroms. Sager, who holds Sage's career block record now has 32 this season with 75 in his three seasons as a Gator. Senior forward Matt Farbotko (Rouses Point, NY/Northeastern Clinton) connected for nine points to put his season total at 390 with his program-best 1,221 career points.
The Gators must now await the announcement of the 2013 ECAC Upstate Tournament field, which will take place on Monday, February 23 with hopes of making their second appearance in the tournament after first garnering a berth in 2011.
