By: Lucas Vargas
BROCKPORT, NY—The Brockport Golden Eagles defended their home floor once again defeating the Elmira Soaring Eagles 87-67.
It was a slow start for Brockport in the first half as foul trouble for both teams led to a combined 16 personal fouls. Brockport also did not shoot the ball efficiently as the Golden Eagles shot at 41 percent shooting 14-34.
The Soaring Eagles shot the ball worse though shooting at 26 percent and going 8-30. The tempo was set by Mehki Beckett as he ended the first half with 13 points to lead all scorers at intermission. After 20, the Golden Eagles led 38-30.
“Offensively, the threes are there, we're open just not making them," Brockport head coach Joe Clarke said. "We need to get a little bit more of a different look, meaning inside out, get it to the middle, get it to the short corner, then threes will flow from there."
One of the biggest strengths the Golden Eagles had was their ability to rebound the ball effectively. Tony Arnold had 12 rebounds spearheading the Golden Eagle effort along with guards Zach Rice (8) and Colby Jordan (6) combined for 14.
A more efficient second half for Brockport saw the Golden Eagles shoot 53 percent from the floor going 17-32. The Golden Eagles had four players with 10 points or more as Beckett netted 21, sophomore Alex Tavarez scored 15, sophomore Nathaniel Gordon poured in 13, and Arnold finished the night with a double-double of 10 points and 12 boards.
Beckett has dropped 10 or more the past four games and has provided a well needed spark for the Golden Eagles. Beckett had a slow start to the season starting the year out only averaging six points, but since the junior has found his stride.
“My confidence. I got my confidence back, I've just been aggressive," Beckett said. "Knowing, everything that my coaches are telling me to do, my teammates believing in me and just being aggressive, doing my job.”
Tavarez is coming into his own as well, Tavarez is facilitating the offense for Brockport and has stepped up when his team has needed him.
“We have a lot of scorers, and we trust everybody on the court, but today I just wanted to come out and be aggressive," Tavarez said. "I know my team needed it today after a long weekend."
A crucial win earned Brockport the number one seed in the Empire 8 as the Nazareth Golden Flyers fell in overtime to the Utica Pioneers 87-77.
“It feels great, honestly, when we weren’t the number one seed, we felt like we were the best team in the conference," Beckett said. “We're going to continue to feel like that. We're going to continue to get better every day, play hard and play for each other. Just continue to keep having confidence in each other and playing team basketball.”
Despite starting the season 1-6 in out of conference play, Coach Clarke knew it would help this Golden Eagles squad in the long run.
“It's why you play a tough schedule, it was a lot of on the road and against top 25, top 30 teams," Clarke said. "So, we took some lumps, but we've learned from them, and again, we're not there, but we've definitely gotten a lot better, and guys are still wanting to be here.”
The Golden Eagles improve to 12-8 and 10-1 in conference play with a showdown against Nazareth next Friday Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m. for Coach Dunne night honoring former Brockport head coach Greg Dunne.
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