By: Mike Rose
Brockport, NY - It was another rough night at the Vlog for the Brockport Golden Eagles men's basketball team as they fell to the Morrisville Mustangs, 94-84. It was the second consecutive loss for Brockport who fell to 5-3 on the season. After an offensive struggle in Saturday's loss, it was a defensive letdown that sunk the Golden Eagles on Tuesday night.
The Mustangs came out of the gates firing as they led wire-to-wire in the game. Early on Shykell Brown led the charge scoring nine points as Morrisville built a 24-8 edge. Brockport pushed back to cut the margin to as slim as nine before the Mustangs ran away taking a 49-32 lead to the break. Technical foul calls against the Brockport bench and head coach Joe Clarke ultimately put the Golden Eagles away before the final 20 began. Clarke at halftime was blunt in assessing his team's play.
"I'd love to see energy, pride, life," Clarke said. "I'd love to see all of that. Simple things but right now we don't have any of it. We need a little spark, we need life we need some energy and we gotta have some joy."
Brown sunk three of the four technical free throw attempts out of the locker room to give him 18 first-half points and make the official halftime score 52-32. Despite showing some more life and energy in the second half, the Golden Eagles never got closer than the final score the rest of the way.
Brockport guard Zachary Rice believes the slow start ultimately doomed the Golden Eagles.
"I think in the beginning we started off with no communication and the defense was really slow," Rice said. "I think if we just came out fast like we wanted to and played defense like Brockport plays defense I think we would've won the game."
Morrisville ended the night shooting 51% from the field and 38% from downtown. Brown finished with a season-high 29 points to lead the Mustangs. Jahki Lucas recorded a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds while adding six assists and four steals. Shaheem Sanders chipped in with 15 points and Daimarr Miller cracked double figures with 10.
For Brockport offensively there remain more questions than answers. Mekhi Beckett remained out for the third consecutive game and the Golden Eagles felt his absence once again. Zachary Rice had his best game as a Golden Eagle, scoring a career-high 17 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Alex Tavarez came off the bench to score in double digits for the third straight game, finishing with 14 points. Sparingly used Freshman Nathaniel Gordon made an impact in his minutes scoring 11 points and grabbing six rebounds.
Despite this Brockport's top scorers came up short. Tony Arnold finished with his lowest scoring output of the season, scoring eight points on 4-11 from the field. Making his fourth straight start, Caquan Wester scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting. The Golden Eagles' inability to create offense early on proved to be a major issue once again.
The loss sends Brockport into the holiday break on a two-game skid. They'll return to game action on the road, on Jan. 5, when they take on the No. 4 ranked Oswego State Lakers (7-0) in a rematch of last season's SUNYAC championship which the Lakers won 74-63.
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