Cortland, NY - Junior Elson Pickering (Brooklyn, NY) hit the second of two free throws with 1:13 remaining in the second overtime to provide the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team with its final point, giving the Golden Knights a 55-54 victory over Cortland State Tuesday evening.
The Golden Knights improved to 8-2 overall and will end the non-conference schedule on Thursday when they host Oswego State. The Red Dragons dropped to 4-5 overall.
The game was tightly contested throughout as Cortland got up by as many as seven points in each of the first two regulation halves. Each time the Knights battled back to gain a modest advantage only to see the game knotted back up again by the Red Dragons.
At the end of the second half, junior guard Brandon Linton (Queens, NY) tied up the score by hitting a short, driving jumper with 3.6 seconds remaining after the Red Dragons failed to ice the game with a pair of free throws six seconds earlier. Another miracle came through in the first overtime after a costly foul, which took place 35 feet from the basket, put Linton at the line with 6.9 seconds left. He buried both free throw attempts to tie up the game and send it to a second overtime.
With both teams exhausted from the physically grinding pace, the second overtime saw slightly more sloppy play. After Pickering put the Knights up by a single point, both teams turned the ball over, giving Cortland a final possession to take the lead. The Red Dragons hoisted a pair of shots in the final seconds, but the second attempt hit the front of the rim and denied Cortland a home victory.
Linton finished with a solid all-around game, scoring 12 points and adding in 4 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks in 43 minutes. Sophomore forward George Koduah (Accra, Ghana) produced a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds and Keith Murray (Queens, NY) added in 11 boards as well. For Cortland, Ron Evans scored a game-high 17 points and Carson Niehoff came off the bench to add 13 points, shooting 8-for-10 from the free throw line.
Both teams struggled mightily from the field, as the Knights had one of their worst shooting performances of the year (20-for-61 for 32.8%), including a 1-for-15 showing from the 3-point line. A strong rebounding effort (47 boards) and an impressive showing from the free throw line (14-for-17) provided the edge for Clarkson. The Red Dragons weren't any better, shooting 19-for-65 (29.2%) and just 12-for-23 (52.2%) from the free throw line.
