Cortland Standard .net

GENESEO — For the SUNY Cortland women’s basketball team, this was a classic case of all’s well that ends well. The Red Dragons opened up Friday night’s SUNY Athletic Conference semifinal playoff game against New Paltz going five scoreless minutes before senior Lindsey Minor made a pair of free throws.
The Red Dragons went more than six minutes before scoring their first basket, senior guard Brittany Rando finally ending that shooting drought with a short jump shot.
From that inauspicious start, the Cortland recovered to be within 27-23 at halftime before junior forward Brittney Dumas stepped up in the second half to carry the second seeds to a 57-48 victory over the third-seeded Hawks.
Conference scoring leader Dumas scored 18 of her game-high 24 points after intermission to lift Cortland (21-5) into today’s 4 p.m. title game, where the Red Dragons will face top-seed and Final Four host Geneseo (22-4) at this same Schrader Gymnasium site.
Geneseo advanced with a 62-49 win over fourth-seeded Oneonta in Friday’s semifinal twin bill nightcap.
This is the 16th time Cortland will appear in the title game and the 11th time in Coach Jeannette Mosher’s 17 seasons, though the Red Dragons are in the finals for the first time since 2010. The Cortland-Geneseo winner earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament.
Dumas made 8-of-14 shots in the second half to spark the comeback and also grabbed 12 rebounds, as the Red Dragons finished with a 45-33 edge off the back-boards.
Cortland out-scored New Paltz (18-9) by a 34-21 margin over those final 20 minutes. The Hawks made just 6-of-28 shots after intermission and shot just 29 percent for the game.
After making just 8-of-26 first half shots, Cortland warmed to the occasion making 13-of-24 shots — 54.2 percent — the rest of the way.
Senior forward Rae Frasier added 10 points, eight rebounds and a team-high three assists for Cortland. Sophomore point guard Cassidy Chapko finished with eight points, six of those free throws during crunch time. Minor contributed six rebounds, four points and a team-best four steals to the victory.
Neither team put on an offensive show in the early going, as 12 minutes into the game the Hawks led by a 15-9 margin. New Paltz took its largest lead at 26-19 on a Sydney Pinn 3-point shot with 1:21 left in the half, but Cortland junior Shannon White made 2-of-4 free throws and Dumas connected on a jumper to close the gap to three.
New Paltz hit one free throw with 14 seconds left and led 27-23 at the break.
The Red Dragons were still down four at 35-31 six minutes into the second half before mounting a 16-1 run over an eight-minute stretch to move ahead to stay. Dumas scored eight points during that decisive spurt, including a jumper with 6:03 remaining that put Cortland up 47-36.
New Paltz’s Shannan Walker buried 3-pointers at the 5:10 and 4:40 marks to bring New Paltz back within five at 47-42. Frasier blocked a layup attempt with 3:40 left that would have made it a three-point game, and Dumas’ jumper with 3:05 on the clock extended the lead to seven.
New Paltz got back to within six twice, the last at 51-45 on two Courtney Irby free throws with 2:04 left. Chapko, however, made 6-of-8 free throw attempts in the final 1:40 for the remainder of the Red Dragons’ scoring.
Walker led New Paltz with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting, all from 3-point range. Irby scored nine points and led the Hawks with nine rebounds and Pinn provided eight points off the bench.
Cortland lost twice to Geneseo during the regular season. The Red Dragons were beaten 50-41 at Geneseo on Jan. 13 before being nipped 68-64 in overtime on their Corey Gymnasium home floor just a week later.
Geneseo 62, Oneonta 49: Senior forward Shannon McGinnis had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Knights, who have now won 16 straight games and will chase after their first league title since 2011.
Junior forward Allison McKenna had 12 points and 11 rebounds while junior guard Dana Cohan added 10 points in the victory. Guard Caysea Cohen had nine points and Sarah Longto eight rebounds for Oneonta (16-11).
IN MEN’S SEMIFINAL outings Friday in Plattsburgh, third-seeded Oswego was a 71-61 winner over second-seeded Geneseo behind 24 points from guard Brian Sortino while top-seeded Plattsburgh handled fourth-seeded Brockport 71-50 as Jordan Mooney led all scorers with 19 points for the victors.
Plattsburgh (19-7) hosts Oswego (18-9) for the championship at 4 p.m. this afternoon.