Box Score
The Lehman College men's basketball team (7-13 Overall, 4-5 CUNYAC) dropped a hard-fought CUNYAC contest on Alumni Day at the APEX Center, falling to the defending conference champions, the Brooklyn College Bulldogs (14-5 Overall, 8-1 CUNYAC) by a score of 75-68 on Saturday afternoon.
Prior to the contest, the annual Alumni Day game took place. Men's basketball players of the past who played in the alumni contest included Marc Domin, Ron Brown, Ted Herwitz, Kenny Calderon, Pablo Pimentel, Austin Conyers, Miguel Jorge, Shawn Brown, Eddison Romeo, Willy Vargas, Duane Rhoden, Cyril Belfor, Chris Bowman, Sekani Francis, and Terrence Shaw.
The contest was tied at 66 apiece with 51 seconds remaining when Brooklyn College's Amil John broke the tie and gave the Bulldogs the lead for good by draining a three-point shot. Brooklyn solidified the victory for good when Alain Dela Cruz – with Lehman trailing 72-68 with 10 seconds remaining – misfired on a three-point basket and the Bulldogs' Thomas Guerin grabbed the rebound, essentially ending the Lightning's hope of a late rally.
Despite the loss for Lehman College, senior Perry Daniel put forth a phenomenal performance as he netted a game-high 22 points while connecting on six of his 10 shots from the field and 10 of his 12 free throws. He also snatched six rebounds as well in 35 minutes of action. Xavier Garvin came alive in the second half, netting all 15 of his points in the second stanza. He also tallied a pair of steals in the loss. The versatile Jonathan DeJesus also contributed 10 points and seven rebounds. Following the game, head coach Steven Schulman gave his thoughts on the alumni game as well as his team's game.
“Seeing many of the former players come back is terrific, and Alumni Day is one of my favorite days of the year,” Schulman said. “It's always nice to see the guys play again, and it's a terrific treat for our fans as well. As for the game today, I was proud of the effort we put forth against the defending champions, but we weren't able to close the deal in the final minutes. We'll have to shake this one off quickly because we have a tough non-conference game against Keystone coming up on Monday.”
In the victory for the Bulldogs, Brooklyn College was led by Richard Jean-Baptiste who scored a team-high 21 points while connecting on six of his 14 shots from the field and seven of his eight free throws before fouling out. Also, it was Darnell Cudjoe scoring 12 points and snatching 13 rebounds in the loss. Finally, Amil John finished with 16 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists in the win.
The teams went toe to toe for most of the game. The Lightning held the slimmest of margins in shooting percentage, as Lehman connected on 41 percent of their shots compared to 40.7 for Brooklyn College. The Lightning nailed 71.4 percent of their free throw attempts (15-21), while Brooklyn made good on 70 percent of theirs (21-30). Lehman also edged Brooklyn in steals (the Lightning tallied eight to the Bulldogs' seven), and blocks (Lehman had seven to Brooklyn's two) as well. The Lightning also won the turnover battle, committing 16 miscues to Brooklyn's 17. The Bulldogs out-rebounded Lehman 39-38 and Brooklyn had 11 assists to Lehman's nine.
Following the game, the Ed Kramer Player of the Game Award was presented to Perry Daniel for his terrific efforts on the afternoon. The standout senior has averaged 14.6 points per game over Lehman's past five games.
The Lightning will look to rebound this Monday evening as Lehman College returns to action against non-conference opponent Keystone College, with game-time at the APEX Center scheduled for 7:00pm.
