Albany won its third straight with a 78-72 victory at Sacred Heart last Saturday. Freshman Todd Cetnar scored 18 points, while Tom McGoldrick added 17 to lead the Great Danes.
Cetnar, who had 13 first-half points, converted a four-point play with 4:54 remaining to break a 60-60 deadlock. The 6-foot point guard was fouled while drilling a three-point field goal from the top of the arc.
Albany increased its advantage to 67-60 two minutes later, but then had to hang on at the end. Rod Toppin hit a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left to close Sacred Heart within 74-72. UA's Darrin Jahnel buried four free throws in the final 19 seconds to seal the verdict.
"In the second half we got the ball inside to (Andre) Duncan, and that's what we wanted to do," said Albany coach Richard Sauers, whose team had dropped its previous three meetings with Sacred Heart, including a 83-77 decision at home on Jan. 11. "Cetnar had a great first half, and while he showed inexperience at times he hit some big shots."
Andre Duncan had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Danes, while Sacred Heart guard Joseph Doyle led all scorers with 26.
"That was a good spurt for us," said Cetnar, referring to his team's decisive seven-point run in the final minutes. I had a good shooting night, but when I don't I know I still have to play solid defense."
Albany defeated Stony Brook, 81-63, earlier in the week, as the Great Danes made 12 of 24 three-point shots. The Seawolves led 28-23 with 8:38 remaining in the first half, but UA scored 19 of the period's next 27 points to take control.
"Our defensive intensity in the last five minutes of the first half and first six minutes of the second half set the tone," said Sauers, who needs one victory to become the 10th head coach in the history of college basketball to reach the 700-career win mark.
Sauers, at 66 years old, is in his 41st season at Albany, and has a 699-327 record. He can join a list which includes Kentucky's Adolph Rupp and North Carolina's Dean Smith. The Great Danes are currently 14-7 overall and 7-6 in the NECC.
Sauers, who became Albany's coach in 1955 when the school was known as the New York State College for Teachers, has seen the athletic program evolve from College Division to Division III and finally to the present Division II level.
A former reserve on the University soccer team still had enough foot in him to pocket $1 million during a gala half-time promotion at the National Football League all-star game in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Feb. 2.
Lance Alstodt, an economics major from the Class of �92, drilled a 35-yard field goal through the right-center of the uprights to win the grand prize in the Hershey's $1 Million Pro Bowl Kick. Alstodt, 26, an investment banker for Chase Securities, Inc., who resides in Roslyn, played under then Albany coach Aldo Nardiello in just his sophomore year of 1989. "All day long on Sunday I was telling people that he [Alstodt] had the power in his leg to make that kick," Nardiello told the Albany Times Union newspaper. "It wouldn't have been a problem for most soccer players."
Alstodt and three other contestants were randomly selected from more than 200,000 entries nationwide for the contest. He earned a shot at the grand prize, along with a trip to Hawaii, by winning a kick-off in Miami, Fla., on Jan. 21.