Brockport pulls off road playoff win against SUNY Poly

By: Matt Hanes

UTICA, N.Y. – The No. 5 seed Brockport Golden Eagles men’s basketball team traveled to SUNY Poly to face the No. 4 seed Wildcats on Saturday. After a deadlocked game at half, Brockport broke out on a 23-7 run through the first nine minutes of the second half to close out the 84-75 upset victory for the Golden Eagles.

Pharell Aybar (3), Jacob Oka (24), Cameron Pownall (7), Ajani Flemming (13) and Omar White (00) lined up pregame before starting lineups are announced. (Photo Credits: Ryan Tezak)

SUNY Poly took a 11-5 lead throughout the first three minutes of action with three-pointers from Brian Bonin and William Scanlon. The Golden Eagles quickly clawed back with to a 12-11 game after a pair of threes from freshman Ajani Flemming alongside contributions from freshmen starters Cameron Pownall and Pharell Aybar.

“I trust my teammates, my teammates trust me,” Flemming said. “Me having 19 points isn’t really a me thing. It just means my teammates had two on them and they found me. My job is to hit open shots and the last couple of weeks, that’s what we’ve been doing was getting shots up.”

Ajani Flemming led the young guns with team-high 19 points, shooting 6-for-10 from the field including five triples. Aybar and Pownall each ended with 14 points, with Aybar adding five rebounds and five assists while Pownall had six rebounds and a block. Pownall also finished a perfect 6-for-6 alongside a 2-for-2 performance at the free throw line.

A pair of treys from SUNY Poly’s Kamryn Comstock gave the Wildcats a 37-29 lead with 4:24 left in the first half. Brockport’s freshman duo of Aybar and Flemming fought to keep the Golden Eagles in it, with a trio of mid-range finishes before senior Omar White closed out the half with a fastbreak dunk to even the score at 39-39.

“We started getting stops and getting good, hard defensive rebounds,” Brockport head coach Joe Clarke said. “We got it up the court and we made a lot of extra passes, a lot of open passes and guys made shots. And once we start making shots after getting stops, we are hard to beat.”

After more back and forth scoring to start the second half, Brockport senior Jacob Oka connected on back-to-back field goals to give the Golden Eagles a lead it never gave up. Oka’s buckets marked the start of a 13-0 scoring run for Brockport in the span of four minutes.

Less than two minutes later, Oka recorded his fourth foul of the game with over 13 minutes left in the second half. The senior quickly subbed out but returned just five minutes later and finished the rest of the game with zero fouls.

“My senior Zach told me ‘Win or lose, do you want your last game to be five points and four fouls?’ I said hell no, so I just went out there and had fun.” Oka said.

Jacob Oka (24) taking a pair of free throws (Photo Credits: Ryan Tezak).

Oka scored seven of his 18 points in the last eight minutes to help the Golden Eagles close out the game 84-75. Oka also grabbed a team-high nine fouls to go along with one assist, one steal and one block.

Brockport improves their record to 15-11 on the season and extends their win streak to eight straight games. SUNY Poly finishes their season with an 18-8 record and has been eliminated from the Empire 8 playoffs.

With the win, the Golden Eagles will move to the semifinal round where they will host the No. 8 Saint John Fisher Cardinals on Wednesday at 6 p.m.