By: Ashton Townsend
BROCKPORT, N.Y. - The Brockport Golden Eagles' men's basketball team grabbed an 87-73 win over the Geneseo Knights in Brockport's last game of the regular season. The Golden Eagles with the game tied 60-60 at the 8:30 mark in the second half went on a 27-13 run to close out the game. Junior guard Zach Rice led the Golden Eagles with 16 points and four others were in double-figures.
"Our scoring has been our strength all year," Brockport head coach Joe Clarke said. "It's a credit to the philosophy we have offensively. It's just share the ball, move and try to get an open shot and these guys do a really good job of not making it about them."
The Golden Eagles entered the game with the one-seed in the Empire 8 playoffs clinched and the Knights searching for a playoff spot. Seven minutes into the game, the Golden Eagles were down 10-9, but they took the lead, which they would never give up.
Sophomore forward Christian Amica added 11 points off the bench for the Golden Eagles, scoring seven in the first half. At halftime, the Golden Eagles led 40-35.
"I just always try to stay ready," Amica said. "I never know how much I'm about to play, so I always stay ready."
The Golden Eagles went up by 11 with 13 minutes left in the second half, then the Knights went on a 15-4 run to tie it up at 60-60. Leading the Knights was sophomore guard Josh Garelle with a game-high 23 points.
Senior guard Jakhi Lucas added 15 points for the Golden Eagles, Sophomore guard Alex Tavarez ended with 11 and senior guard Tony Arnold had 10 points. Junior forward Jacob Oka had nine points and eight rebounds in the win.
"Regardless of who we play, the focus all year has been on us tweaking what we can do better and it's just a lot of little things," Clarke said. "So that's what we're going to really preach and show film, the energy stuff, the body positioning, the body language and positioning on defense. So we don't care who we play, we'll be ready for them."
The Golden Eagles finish the regular season 16-9. As for the Geneseo, they finished the season 9-16 and are ninth in the Empire 8. Brockport will face either Keuka or the Knights who will be the 8-seed on Saturday, Feb. 19 in the Empire 8 quarterfinals. Tip-off time is TBA.
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