By DAVID MEISTER
Sports Editor
The College of Saint Rose men’s basketball team kicked off the season against one of the nation’s powerhouse colleges last Thursday when they traveled to the Carrier Dome to take on the Syracuse Orange. The Golden Knights fought valiantly but ultimately came up short against their Division I foe, 80-49. The raucous crowd at the Dome was in full force for an exhibition game with an official attendance of 5,628 people. Many students, staff and alumni of Saint Rose made the trip to Syracuse to cheer on the Golden Knights.
The game was close in the first half, as Saint Rose kept the Orange close. Halfway through the first half, the Golden Knights trailed by only three points after a made jump shot by senior Matt Cerutti. One of the other seniors, Shane Herrity, also left his mark in the first half, scoring eight of his total ten points. But that was as close as they got for the night as Syracuse started to pull away in the first frame. The first half ended with a long-range three point shot by freshman Buddy Boeheim, coach Jim Boeheim’s son, which sent the Orange faithful into a frenzy as the horn sounded.
The second half for Saint Rose was led by the veteran Cerutti who scored six points and grabbed two rebounds. Junior Michael Wearne had a good second half as well, scoring four points, two of which at the free throw line, and snatching two rebounds and one steal.
At the end of the night, Herrity led all Saint Rose players with 10 points and five rebounds, while Cerutti finished with eight points and 12 rebounds on the night.
The Golden Knights have a lot of youth on this year’s squad with eight freshmen beginning their careers at Saint Rose at the Carrier Dome.
After the final horn sounded, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim talked about Saint Rose and the challenge they brought to the Orange.
“They were a very good team for us to play, they handled the ball really well, they passed it well, they moved it really well on offense, they made us play defense,” said Boeheim.
For Saint Rose, this was the first game since long-time head coach Brian Beaury retired last week. Assistant Coach Mike Perno, is now the interim head coach but has been in this situation before, leading the team for the 2014-2015 and 2017-2018 seasons while Beaury was on medical leave. Perno called the game last night “exciting for me,” and he is happy to be continuing to build off of the foundation the Beaury built.
Perno also said that “our goal was to get better.” He noted that he wanted his team to compete and rebound against Syracuse and they did just that, with Cerutti and Herrity combining on the night for 17 rebounds.
Cerutti, who is one of the team’s three seniors, called the overall experience “surreal.” He also said that “we competed for 32 minutes but slipped the last seven.” He said going forward the team’s goal is to “keep building and do the little things.”
The Golden Knights will officially open up play for the regular season on Saturday Nov. 10 when they host Georgian Court Lions at 4 p.m. as part of the Saint Rose Tip-Off Tournament at the Nolan Gymnasium.
