The Oswego State men's basketball team downed Middlebury College 70-55 in the first round of the University of Rochester/Holiday Inn Airport Thanksgiving Invitational on Saturday night. Oswego's victory kept its record perfect at 5-0 on the season while the Panthers dropped to 1-3.
It was a slow start for the Lakers, as their first points came 3:12 into the contest on a Mark Candelario layup. The next two Oswego buckets came from Dustin Pond, who hit back-to-back treys to make it an 8-4 Laker advantage. Oswego controlled the lead the rest of the opening period, with its largest margin growing to eight. The Laker defense was key in the 20 minutes, holding the Panthers to just 8-for-28 (28.6%) shooting from the field.
Oswego earned its first double-figure spread early in the second half, as it opened on a 5-0 spurt. The squad controlled the action the rest of the way, never holding a less than nine-point differential the rest of the tilt.
Walter Sampson paced Oswego in the scoring column, registering 17 points on 5-for-10 shooting. Junior Brian Sortino was just one-point shy of the team-high, recording 16 point, including a 12-for-13 night at the charity stripe. Also scoring in double figures for the Lakers was sophomore Dustin Pond, tallying 13 points, 12 of which came from beyond the arc on just six attempts.
Oswego edged the Panthers on the glass 44-43, with Candelario (12) and Keith Tyson (11) combining for 23 of those boards. All eight Lakers that saw court time in the battle scored at least three points. The team's defense continued to pester Middlebury throughout the game, holding the Panthers to just 31.7% (19-for-49) shooting.
The Lakers will face the host Yellowjackets at 3 p.m. on Sunday in the championship game of the tournament.
