Galloway, NJ-- The Sage Colleges' men's basketball team travelled to Richard Stockton College for the 2012 Eastern College Athletic Conference Metro NY-NJ Division III Men's Basketball Quarterfinals. The top seeded Ospreys survived a scare from the No. 8 seeded Sage Gators, 79-69. RSC improves to 20-7 on the season and moves on to Saturday's semifinals. The Gators end their season at 13-14 overall after making appearances in both the Skyline Conference and ECAC Metro NY-NJ Tournaments.
Sage held a 33-30 lead at the break as they shot 52.2% from the floor (12-23) and held the Ospreys to just 35.5% (11-31). Junior guard Ryan LaBelle (East Berne, NY/Berne-Know-Westerlo) paced the Gators with 12 points after hitting 4-6 of shots from the floor, including a 4-5 effort from three–point range. By game's end, he had a personal-best 21 points and shot a blistering 8-13 from the floor with five three-point baskets.
Joining LaBelle with a strong performance was senior forward Matt Farbotko (Rouses Point, NY/Northeastern Clinton) as he added a team and game-high 23 points. Farbotko was also 8-13 from the floor in the contest, while pulling down six rebounds. Farbotko wraps his stellar collegiate career at Sage as the program's all-time leading scorer with 1,244 points. He also added a personal-best 413 points, which is a Sage single-season scoring record after he started all 27 games for the Gators this year. His career resume includes 87 starts in 94 games played with 523 rebounds and a 13.2 ppg average during his four years as a member of the first Gator men's basketball team.
Rookie forward Melvin Ford (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern Regional) tallied four points, but hauled down a career-best 11 rebounds in the contest. He added three blocked shots for the Gators as they combined for six blocks on the night and held a 30-29 edge on the boards over RSC.
Junior guard Jeff Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia Glenville) also connected for 10 points for Sage with three assists and two steals. Stopera, who holds Sage's career assist and steals records now has 401 assists and 178 steals in 85 games at Sage.
Another of the Sage seniors that competed in his final collegiate game was senior center Ryan Sager (Stuyvesant, NY/Ichabod Crane). Sager tallied nine points with five rebounds and a blocked shot for Sage and was 4-5 from the floor. On the season, Sager led the Gators with a blistering 60.6 % field goal percentage and hauled down a team-best 229 rebounds. He capped his career with his strongest showing in his three seasons in a Gator uniform with his 10.7 ppg and 8.5 rpg, while elevating his resume to a program-best 76 blocked shots with a 58.0% career field goal percentage. He added 713 points (No. 3 at Sage) with 521 rebounds (No. 2 at Sage). He was also ranked nationally this year after connecting on nine double-doubles.
