Cortland Standard .net

ELMIRA — As the SUNY Cortland men’s basketball team heads down the home stretch of the regular season with 10 conference contests still on the agenda, they do so with a nice bit of momentum.
The Red Dragons also finished off the accomplishment of going unbeaten in all seven contests played outside of the SUNY Athletic Conference this season, capped by Saturday’s 54-43 road win at Elmira College that improved their overall record to 12-3.
Some balanced scoring was the featured attraction in Cortland’s fourth consecutive win as freshmen Paul Burke and Justin Prendergast — both rookies out of Monroe-Woodbury High School — shared team scoring honors with 10 points apiece coming off the bench for Coach Tom Spanbauer.
Back-up point guard Burke made 4-of-5 shots from the floor including both of his 3-point attempts during his 15 minutes of court time. Back-up center Prendergast made 4-of-6 shots and a pair of free throws in 20 minutes, when he also grabbed a handful of rebounds.
Also helping to take care of Elmira (6-11) were junior guard T.J. Hefele with eight points, senior Lamard Herron with seven points and three assists, and senior starting center Matt McGowan with six points and a team-high seven rebounds.
No one reached double figures for Elmira, Gino Leonardi the high scorer for the Soaring Eagles with eight points.
The teams were tied 23-23 with 2:03 left in the first half after a jumper by Elmira’s Matt Davis, but Cortland scored the final seven points of the period on a McGowan layup, a Blair Estarfaa trey and a Hefele jumper.
The Red Dragons then scored the first two buckets of the second half on shots by McGowan and guard Shayne Martinez and led 34-23 with 16:43 remaining.
Elmira was still within six at 47-41 when David Borelli made a layup with 2:20 left. However, Herron knocked down a jumper at the 1:50 mark and the Red Dragons connected on five of their next six free throws – one by Hefele and two each by Martinez and Herron – to extend the lead to 13 and put the game away.
CORTLAND WOMEN breezed to a 60-34 win over Elmira in the opener at Speidel Gymnasium, holding the hosts to just 26 percent shooting in the non-conference game.
Junior Brittney Dumas nearly out-scored the Soaring Eagles all by herself, the six-foot forward with 23 points as the Red Dragons improved to 12-3 on the season. She also grabbed seven rebounds and blocked three shots while making 10-of-18 shots.
Senior starter Erin Wolstenholme and senior back-up forward Rae Frasier scored nine points apiece for Cortland, Frasier also with five rebounds. Steady senior Lindsey Minor matched her career high with seven assists, Minor and Brooke DeMarco both with five rebounds apiece.
Meghan Loya led Elmira (7-10) with eight points and five rebounds.
Cortland limited Elmira to 5-of-28 shooting in the opening half, including 2-of-13 from 3-point range, and led 26-14 at the break. Dumas and Frasier accounted for 12 and seven points, respectively, over those opening 20 minutes.
The Red Dragons pushed the lead to 20 points less than eight minutes into the second half and led by at least 18 from that point. Cortland shot 56 percent from the field in the second half and 47 percent for the game.
Both Cortland teams return to SUNYAC this weekend, with games at Oneonta Friday night and New Paltz Saturday afternoon.