Box Score
The Lehman College women's basketball team (10-15 Overall, 8-5 CUNYAC) closed out their regular season with a tough loss, falling to the Cardinals of York College (13-11 Overall, 8-5 CUNYAC) by a score of 80-70 in overtime in Jamaica, Queens on Monday afternoon.
Despite the loss to York, the Lightning were led by the stellar effort of Barbara Febus who netted a team-high 20 points while connecting on seven of her 11 attempts from the field while grabbing five rebounds and fishing a pair of assists. Leslie Mencia came off the bench to score 12 points and snatch eight rebounds, and Dorothy Hunte added nine points and 15 rebounds (eight on the offensive glass) off of the bench as well. Despite the loss, Lehman College head coach Eric Harrison gave his thoughts.
“We put forth a very good effort today, but we weren't able to come away with a victory,” Harrison said. “Our confidence level is pretty high because we've played pretty well the past couple of games, and I think we feel good about ourselves heading into the CUNY tournament. We have five days off and then we'll be taking on a tough Brooklyn College team, so we're going to prepare diligently with the hopes of making another run to the championship game.”
Leading by seven points (60-53), with two minutes remaining, York saw its lead evaporate when the Lightning went on a 7-0 run to even the score. After the Lightning tied up the game with 1:00 remaining, Dabo went coast-to-coast and scored on a lay-up to put York back up by two points (62-60). However, Lehman's Barbara Febus went up the court herself and scored on a lay-up to tie the game. York had a couple chances to score on its final possession but could not find the basket and the game went into overtime. In the extra session, the Cardinals dominated, outscoring Lehman College 18-8 in going on for the impressive victory.
For the York College Cardinals in the victory, it was Maimouna Dabo scoring 24 points and grabbing nine rebounds and Elizabeth Padilla dropping in 19 points. Niya Jarvis recorded a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 12 rebounds and Kadisha Wickham also had a double-double, scoring 12 points and pulling down 14 caroms.
The Cardinals dominated the points-off-turnovers category, netting 34 points off Lehman College miscues compared to the Lightning capitalizing with 18 points off of York mistakes. The Cardinals outscored the Lightning 46-36 in the paint, and the Cardinals shot 40 percent from the floor for the game while Lehman connected on 34.2 percent of its shots for the contest. The Lightning bench did outscore York's bench, though, 38-24.
The Lightning and the Cardinals both completed their conference portions of the CUNY schedule with 8-5 marks, but by virtue of York's victory today, the Cardinals solidified the number five seed in the upcoming CUNYAC tournament while Lehman College will enter the playoffs as the number six seed. The Lightning will travel to Brooklyn College to battle the Bulldogs, who at 9-4 will enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed.
