Oneonta State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams open play in the SUNY Athletic Conference tonight with road games.

The men visit SUNYIT at 7 p.m. and the women are at Oswego at 6 p.m. To win the conference title and gain an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament, each team would have to win three games on the road.

The semifinals and final will be held at the highest remaining seed this weekend.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

O-State at Oswego

The Red Dragons (14-11) are making their 14th straight appearance in the SUNYAC Tournament and 16th overall. O-State earned titles in 1998 and 2001 and last appeared in the championship game in 2004, losing to Cortland, 50-46.

Last season, Brockport knocked the Red Dragons out in the quarterfinals, 68-56.

A promising 9-2 start hit a bump at the end of the season as O-State has gone 5-9 down the stretch and has only won three times in the past 11 games. The No. 6 seed, Oneonta went 7-9 in the SUNYAC.

Oswego (11-5) is the third seed and has swept the Red Dragons this season, 50-42 and 52-49 in overtime.

Senior Melissa Donohue leads O-State in scoring this season with 9.4 points per game.[an error occurred while processing this directive]