One Red Dragon Came Up On Top And The Other Ended In Flames

DANIEL FLEIG - ONEONTA, NY

On Tuesday February 9th, 2016 the annual Battle of the Red Dragons kicked off at 5:30PM. 530PM kicked off the ongoing historical rivalry between SUNY Oneonta (O-State) and SUNY Cortland, starting with the women's basketball team first. The women's basketball team celebrated a victorious win against Cortland 63 to 55. One specific player that shined throughout the game for O-State was Lyteshia Price, scoring 19 points total.

730PM kicked off the second Red Dragon rivalry between the men's basketball teams. When I walked in it was hard to even tell which side of the bleachers were home and which side were for the visitors. I felt as if the crowd section was filled solely with O-State Red Dragon Fans! You could feel how intense this game was going to be especially seeing that this has been an ongoing rivalry for quite some time now and will always continue in the future. Just before the game started, the announcer said over the loudspeaker "All artificial noise makers are prohibited." Fans sometimes bring horns and other sorts of noisemakers to distract the other team, so you know with this announcement this battle between Oneonta and Cortland is taken pretty serious. Although both teams played a great game, only one team was going to come out on top as the superior Red Dragon.

The halftime show definitely lightened up the crowd even more as the crowd was eager to see some more action of the game. The three halftime show performances were by the Oneonta State Kickline team, the Oneonta Dance team, the Oneonta State Cheerleaders, and also some talented drummers performed. This exciting halftime show set up an even more rowdy crowd for the second half of the Battle of the Red Dragons game!

O-State Cheerleaders

Just before halftime I turned to my friend Brian Gallis and asked him if he had any predictions about the outcome of the game. "If I was to guess the final score of the game, I would have to predict it to be 62 O-State 58 Cortland." He was close, but had the teams mixed up! Unfortunately Cortland came through with the win against Oneonta. It was a devastating loss, not only because of such a big rivalry, but because it was on our home turf. The final score of the men's basketball game was 56 Oneonta 64 Cortland.

Mid three-point shot

Throughout the game, defense was seen as the key ingredient to success here. Both teams played tremendous defense, but unfortunately Cortland sunk a few more shots to take the win. "Hit that three!" my friend Daniella Ferrao kept screaming throughout the game. If only O-State swooshed some of those last three-pointer shots, they could have been the reigning champions of the Battle of the Red Dragons. Even though we didn't come on top during our opportunity at home advantage, the men played a terrific game and the Battle of the Red Dragons legacy will continue to live on.

Quick recap of the games