Gerardo Suero was exhausted and hunched over. Hands on his knees, the sweat was dripping down the Albany guard’s brow as his coach gave him instructions.

After the big game Suero had, though, it wasn’t surprising he was spent by the final buzzer. He left all his energy on the court in the Great Danes’ opening-round game of the NIT Season Tip-Off.

‘When I first sit down, man, I saw heaven,’ Suero said. ‘I was so tired.’

The junior guard had every right to be. Recovering from the flu, Suero’s 29-point performance led Albany as it topped Brown 77-68 in the first round of the NIT Season Tip-Off inside a barren Carrier Dome on Monday. Suero was involved in a little bit of everything, adding nine rebounds, three assists and three steals to keep the Great Danes in the lead the entire game, even when Brown was charging late in the second half.

Near the end of the second half, Brown cut its deficit to just five points after getting hot from 3-point range. So when Albany needed a lift to close out the game, Suero provided just that.

Suero drove to the lane and went up against multiple defenders challenging the shot, making a layup to put Albany up 71-64. Soon after, Suero again displayed his aggressive offensive mentality by hitting another contested layup, giving the Great Danes a 73-66 advantage with less than a minute to play in the game.

He then brought aggression to Albany’s defense to close the win out. He pulled down his ninth rebound off a missed 3-pointer by Brown’s Jean Harris, all but ending the Bears’ late game run.

‘Gerardo is an unbelievable talent, and he’s very hard to guard,’ UA head coach Will Brown said. ‘He’s just going to continue to get better, but he’s a terrific talent, and he’s going to have a great year for us.’

Suero displayed that talent from the start, driving to the basket when he had the ball in his hands. From the first bucket of the game, Suero continued to attack the hole, getting most of his points on layups. He finished the first half with 14 points, going an efficient 5-of-6 from the field.

As a result, Albany took a controlling 41-29 lead into the locker room.

‘I’m more of a driver than anything,’ Suero said. ‘I can shoot, but to me, I can get to the lane easy, so I don’t look too much to shoot because I can get just to the basket.’

Albany was fortunate Suero’s hot first half provided a cushion. Brown finally picked up its offensive production after a less-than-stellar shooting first half.

The Bears hit 8-of-16 shots from beyond the arc in the second half, with junior guard Matt Sullivan leading the charge. He nearly matched Suero’s big game, finishing with 26 points including five 3s.

Defense is still something all of Albany’s players, including Suero, need to improve on, Brown said. But what offset the Danes’ second-half defensive struggles was Suero’s consistent scoring.

Logan Aronhalt was Albany’s second-best player, scoring 19 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. Aronhalt said Suero has shown he can be a closer for Albany early on in his Danes career, after playing his first two years at the junior college level.

Suero also scored 17 in his Albany debut against then-No. 10 Pittsburgh on Friday.

‘There were certain times where we were struggling to score and we needed a bucket just to get that last bit of momentum to finish the game, and he brought that for us,’ Aronhalt said.

And Suero is still learning the American style of basketball. Coming from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Suero has only played stateside for a few years.

But Suero’s Dominican basketball roots may help Albany with its next opponent.

The 2-3 zone that he’ll likely see against No. 5 Syracuse on Tuesday night is the defense he’s used to attacking.

‘I joked with him after. I said, ‘Are you ready for Syracuse’s 2-3 zone?’ Do they play that in the Dominican Republic?” Brown said. ‘He looked at me and said, ‘Coach, that’s all we play in the Dominican Republic.”

dgproppe@syr.edu

Published on November 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm