Oswego, NY -- The Elmira College men's basketball team, unlike the previous night, found themselves leading by two with nine minutes remaining in the second half. Unfortunately for EC, a nearly six-minute stretch without a field goal led to hole that they could not comeback from as Elmira fell 70-66 to Farmingdale State to close out the Oswego State Tip-Off Classic.
EC, for the second consecutive night, had three players score in double-figures and all three were different than the night before. Leading the way were second-year guard
Oladapo Badmos '17, who scored 12 points and also recorded a team-high six assists, and
Justin Henderson '16, who had 12 points, on four three-pointers, off the bench. Coming in just behind Badmos and Henderson was
David Borelli '15 who turned in a well-rounded game of 11 points, six rebounds, and two steals.
The Soaring Eagles used back-to-back-to-back three-pointers from
Hayden Harkins'18 and
Neil Randolph'15, twice, to jump out to 10-2 lead just three minutes into the contest. EC continued its strong play, stretching the lead out to 11 on two occasions, but a 12-0 run from the Rams gave Farmingdale a 18-17 lead with 9:02 to go in the first half.
Henderson ended the run with the first of his four three-pointers to put his team back on top by two and started an 9-2 run that saw Elmira go back up by six, 26-20. EC maintained the lead, which fluctuated between three and six points, for the remainder of the half as the Soaring Eagles went into the locker rooms with a 33-29 advantage.
Elmira held onto the lead through the beginning stages of the second half, but Farmingdale would go on a run to take their first lead in over 14 minutes of game-time at 40-39. Back-to-back three-pointers from Henderson gave the lead back to the Soaring Eagles, a lead in which they held until Farmingdale's Trey Kinard tied the game at 51 apiece with 8:52 to play. That basket was part of a 10-0 run that put the Rams up by six.
Borelli snapped the scoring run with a layup, making it 57-53, with 6:35 to play, but that would be the last field goal that EC would score for five minutes of gameplay as their only scoring came from free throws. The Soaring Eagles, down seven with two minutes to play, had their scoring drought ended by a Randolph layup and EC rallied to make it a three-point game with 1:21 remaining. That would be as close as the Purple and Gold would get as Farmingdale made 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch to close out the 70-66 win.
Elmira will take a break from competition as their next contest is not until Tuesday, November 25th when EC will travel to take on Hilbert College for a 7:00 p.m. game.
