SPORTS TALK

 Haggarty on All-Academic Team
    Matthew Haggarty has been selected to the GTE District I Academic All-America Men's Basketball Team as chosen by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).  Haggarty, who has a 3.37 cumulative grade point average in communication with a double minor in Spanish and  marketing, was one of five players named to the all-district unit.  The national team will be announced on March 14. Haggarty, a senior guard from Wayland, Mass., is averaging 13.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists as a 27-game starter this season.  He ranks eighth nationally among the NCAA Division I leaders in three-point field goals made (3.3 per game), and is shooting 42.7 percent from beyond the arc. 
    Haggarty became the 23rd 1,000-point scorer in school history this season, and currently is 17th on the all-time chart with 1,084.  He shattered Albany's career record for 3-pointers made (252) earlier this month, and set the single-season standard (90) on Feb. 24 against Bucknell. 

Men’s Basketball
    Dan Bowen scored 18 points to pace five players in double figures, as Bucknell posted its fifth straight win with a 72-61 non-conference victory over Albany on Wednesday, Feb. 23 at Davis Gymnasium.
    Bucknell (17-9) led 46-44 midway through the second half, but then reeled off nine unanswered points to take control.  Albany (10-17) could get no closer than five points the rest of the way.
    “You have to play perfect in order to beat a well coached team with good seniors,” Albany coach Scott Hicks said.  “We took ourselves out of it with poor transition defense and our inability to do the little things that get you over the tough moments in a game.”
    The Great Danes, who dropped their fourth straight, led 16-15 in the first half, but the Bison took the lead for good with an 8-2 run.  Albany rallied to 41-40 with 14:01 remaining, but sophomore guard Bryan Bailey, who scored 16, canned a three-pointer off a screen from the right wing. 
    Todd Cetnar led the Great Danes with 18 points, while freshman Steve Albany added a career-high 15 in his first start of the season.

NOTES:  Todd Cetnar has moved to fifth in assists (363) and second in steals (185) among the school's all-time leaders ... Syracuse (22-3) and Central Connecticut State (22-5) lead a group of 11 opponents with .500 or better records ... freshman Steve Albany is averaging 6.5 points over his 10 games ... Chuck Graham, Matthew Haggarty, and Cetnar were honored on Senior Night against Army on Feb. 19.

Women’s Basketball
    Megan Buchanan scored 15 points and became the school's all-time three-point leader as Albany rallied for a 64-63 non-conference win over Bucknell on Wednesday, Feb. 23 at Davis Gymnasium.  The Great Danes, who have won six of their last seven games, avenged an early-season 24-point loss to Bucknell.
    Albany (11-15) rallied from a 46-45 deficit with seven unanswered points.  Buchanan, who has 120 career three-pointers, buried a long-range jumper to give her team the lead for good.  The Great Danes eventually built a 62-54 advantage on a jumper by Melissa Schoonover. 
    Bucknell (13-13) regrouped to score nine of the game's final 11 points.  Vicky Quimby,  missed a turnaround jumper in the lane with four seconds remaining, and Schoonover grabbed the rebound to preserve the victory. 
    “We’ve been playing great down the stretch and have had a good presence on the boards.”  Lori Houck added 16 points for the Bison, who defeated Albany, 89-65, at the Cornell Classic consolation on Dec. 4.  Liz Tucker had nine points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals for the Great Danes.

NOTES:  Albany's senior class was honored in a pre-game ceremony prior to the season finale with Navy on Feb. 28 ... Megan Buchanan, Melissa Schoonover, Marlana Wheelwright, Lauren O'Brien and Ann Aldrich all made their final appearances at the Recreation and Convocation Center ... Buchanan is third on the career scoring list with 1,075 points, while Schoonover is ranked fifth in rebounding and 
second in blocked shots. 

Football
    Senior linebacker Mike Grever has been selected as the 1999 Football Gazette Division I-AA Non-Scholarship Linebacker of the Year as announced by the national publication on Feb. 21.  Grever, the Northeast Conference Defensive Player of the Year, was a first-team All-America selection. 
    Grever led the Great Danes with 88 tackles, including seven for losses and 1.5 sacks, and added three interceptions, five pass break-ups and two blocked kicks.  A 5-foot-11, 215-pound defender, Grever spearheaded a defensive unit that ranked 15th among the Division I-AA national leaders in scoring at 17.3 points per game. 
     He finished his career as Albany's all-time tackles leader with 351, and had 24 career games with double-figure tackles. 
Seven Albany players received honorable mention All-America honors, including tailback Greg Garrett, the school's career rushing leader with 2,958 yards, and All-ECAC left guard Billy Van Jura.  Others chosen were left tackle J.T. Herfurth, right tackle Jason Barra, tight end Steve Checksfield, free safety Samson Brown, and split end/return specialist Chris Phillis.  The Great Danes completed their first season as an NCAA Division I-AA program with a 7-2 record.

Track
    Andrea Viger established a school record in the women's 1,500-meter run at RPI's track & field meet on Thursday, Feb. 17 at Robison Gymnasium.  She won the event in 4:43.05, and shattered a mark set by Tonya Dodge in 1994 by more than one-and-a-half seconds.  Viger, of Granville, broke Dodge's 3,000 standard in January at Manhattan College's Jasper        Relays with a time of 10:10.52. 
    On Friday, Feb. 18, Ronald Edmundson broke his own school mark in the triple jump with a leap of 48-feet, 9-inches at the USAT&F New England Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center.  Edmundson went 48-7.50 earlier this season in a quadrangular meet on Dec. 11.