Albany, NY—The Sage Colleges' men's basketball team opened the 2018-2019 season Tuesday night losing to the Fighting Tigers of SUNY-Cobleskill in Kahl Gym, 94-83. Cobleskill is now 1-1 on the young season.
Senior guard Dashown Nelson led all players with his double-double with 22 points and a game high 15 rebounds. A total of 14 of his boards came on the defensive side. Sophomore forward Antwan Claxton with a game best 24 points and three steals. Sophomore guard Ian Jordan scored 16 points with five boards and junior guard Devin Boyle had 15 points for the Fighting Tigers. Cobleskill shot 51% for the night and had a slim 47-46 rebounding advantage while hitting 35% from three pointers.
Senior guard Chris Kidd (Troy, NY/Beacon) had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds and Sophomore guard Anthony Mitchell (Bronx, NY/Salesian) and junior guard Christian Larson (Jacksonvile, FL/Oakleaf) each had team highs of 16 points, while freshman forward Jason Geronimo (Orlando, FL/Colonial) matched Kidd with a team best 10 rebounds. Graduate student Frane Larose (Miami, FL/Miami Beach Senior) dished out a game high nine assists. Sage shot 39% for the game and forced 19 turnovers.
The Gators jumped out to an 11 point advantage in the first 4:33, leading 15-4 after a layup from Larose. Larson had three three pointers for nine points in that span. But the Tigers came storming back with an 18-6 run in the next 8:11 as Dashown Nelson's layup made it one point lead at 22-21 for Cobleskill. The game was tied at 26-26 with 5:04 left in the first half, but the Tigers outscored the Gators, 20-8 for a 46-34 lead at the half.
The Fighting Tigers got the lead up to 15 at 54-39 with 17:13 left in the second half. Sage went on a 12-3 run to pull to within six at 57-51 with 13:08 to play on a layup by Mitchell. The Gators got as close as five (62-57) with 11:39 to play but no closer, and the largest lead for Cobleskill was 15 at 88-73 with 3:45 left in the second.
Sage is back in action on November 16-17 at the Manhattanville College AJ Buchanan Classic as they will face Oglethorpe College on Friday night at 6 p.m. SUNY-Cobleskill is back in action on November 17 hosting Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at 1 p.m.
