| 12/30/2003 9:07:55 AM

ROCHESTER, NY -- The RIT men's basketball team dropped their second straight game with an 80-78 loss to Cortland State on Friday night at Clark Gymnasium. Cortland's Justin O'Garrow hit the game-winning bucket with four seconds to play in the second half. The loss drops RIT to 4-3 on the season, while Cortland State improves to 5-2.

The Tigers found themselves down throughout the first half, trailing at the break, 40-31. The Tigers shot 42.3 percent from the floor and made four of nine from three-point land. Kyle Goff (Manassas, VA) led RIT with 12 points on 5-6 shooting from the floor. Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) (Buffalo, NY) and Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) (Buffalo, NY) each added five points for the Tigers.

The Red Dragons shot 50 percent from the floor and were 5-10 from behind the three-point line. Cortland State's biggest lead was 14 points which came with 2:44 to play on a lay up by Justin O'Garrow. Frank Ranieri paced the Red Dragons with 15 points on 7-12 shooting from the floor. Dave Jutton added nine points, all coming on three-pointers.

Despite, falling behind by as many as 14 points in the second half RIT kept pecking away at Cortland's lead. The Red Dragons would go up and RIT would come right back, cutting it back to six points on several occasions. With 5:21 to play RIT was down 74-60. The Tigers went on an 18-4 run, tying the score at 78-78 on a pair of free throws by Kyle Goff with 36 seconds remaining. Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude), Kyle Goff and Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) all hit big shots in that run to lead RIT all the way back.

After a timeout Cortland's Justin O'Garrow took the ball and with the shot clock running down he drove to his right and made the layup. RIT inbounded the ball and got it up to Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) who tried a desperation three-pointer as time ran out. However, the shot was off the mark as the buzzer sounded, giving Cortland the win.

RIT was led by Kyle Goff who scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) added 19 points, while Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) added 16 points. Senior John Johnson (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier Central) (Hamburg, NY) tallied 12 points.

Cortland was led by Frank Ranieri (Cicero, NY) who had 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Justin O'Garrow (Port Washington, NY) had 17 points on 7-11 shooting and added six assists, while Dave Jutton (Red Hook, NY) added 14 points. Jon Rother (Sodus Point, NY) tallied 12 points and Brian Kirchhoff (Webster, NY) had 11 points.

RIT is off until January 6 when they host cross-town rival the University of Rochester at 8 p.m.