Great Season Comes to an End in Elite 8

Great Season Comes to an End in Elite Eight

#6 Richard Stockton - 103, Farmingdale State - 60

Pomona, N.J. – The best season in school history by the Farmingdale State men's basketball team (27-4) came to an end in the Sectional Finals against Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (28-2). Five Ospreys scored in double-digits as No. 6 Stockton defeated the Rams, 103-60, on Saturday night. The win marked the 17th straight for the Ospreys, who advanced to their first Final Four since the 1987 season.

Santini Lancioni (Runnemede, Paul/V.I.) led the Stockton offense with 23 points and a game-high five assists. The junior point guard also made 5-of-6 shots from three-point range. Omar Smith (Newark, N.J./Central) made 7-of-11 field goals and finished with 21 points. Michael Farrow recorded the only double-double of the game, adding 15 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.

For Farmingdale State, Skyline Conference Player-of-the-Year Damien Santana (Brooklyn, N.Y./Grady) paced the Rams with 17 points. Erastus Shannon (Amityville, N.Y./Copiague) was the only other Farmingdale scorer to reach double-digits as the senior scored 12 points. Santana and Shannon grabbed a team-high six rebounds each.

Play was back-and-forth for the first two minutes, as a pair of Smith free throws tied the game at 7-7 with 18 minutes remaining in the first half. However, a pair of 10-0 spurts for the Ospreys gave Stockton a lead they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

The first run came after Smith's free-throws tied the game. The junior forward scored six of the next 10 points, as the Ospreys extended their lead to 17-7 with 14:29 remaining in the first half. The second 10-point burst came in the half’s final two minutes, with two Lancioni three-pointers and a buzzer-beating jumper by Jerome Hubbard (Neptune, N.J./Neptune) that made the score 53-32 at halftime.

The Ospreys picked up where they left off to start the second half, as an 11-0 run out of the locker room put the game completely out of reach. Hubbard scored five of the 11 points during the run, including his second three-pointer of the game. The senior finished with 17 points in his final home game.

Stockton will head to Salem, Virginia next week to play in the Final Four. The Ospreys will take on Franklin and Marshall on Friday, March 20 at 7 p.m., with the winner advancing to the 2009 NCAA Division III National Championship game.

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