Feb. 20, 2011

Box Score

After one half of play of Sunday's City University of New York Athletic Conference/Con Edison Championship quarterfinal, the bandbox gym of the Medgar Evers Cougars was pulsating with life.

The home team had just closed out the first half with a 16-6 run, punctuated by a block of George Nimmons breakaway layup attempt at the buzzer, to open up a 43-26 lead.

The Lightning had up until that point been largely unsuccessful in several of the key areas – three-point shooting (1-for-8), assist-to-turnover ratio (16 turnovers) – that Coach Steve Schulman had identified prior to the game as imperative if Lehman was to emerge victorious.

Another, the ability to keep Medgar's hyper-athletic post man, Winston Douglas, from becoming a factor did not go well either. In fact, Douglas and his equally athletic frontline partner Donnell Lazare proved to be a load inside over the first 20 minutes as both hit the offensive boards, clogged the middle and altered countless Lightning shots around the basket. For good measure, and possibly as a bit of intimidation, Douglas threw down an alley-oop off a lob from James Gilmore that unhinged the rim and temporarily halted the game.

At the halftime break, Douglas had scored 10 points while Lazare had filled the stat sheet with four points, six rebounds and two blocked shots. The game was showing signs of taking on the character of the Lightning's early season loss to Medgar with the home team playing at its preferred frenetic pace.

However, if there was one thing that could be said about the Lightning this season, it's that it was a resilient bunch; the team would certainly not go down without a fight.

That fight came immediately out of the intermission as the determined Lightning began to claw its way back into the game. A hard-driving Victor Garcia tallied Lehman's first five points of the half on two free throws followed by a conventional three-point play. Then Jonathan DeJesus grabbed an offensive board off a miss by Garcia, absorbed contact from Douglas and converted underneath to further energize the Lehman bench. Senior Alain De La Cruz capped the 9-2 Lightning' run with a three-pointer from the left side to draw the visitors within 45-36.

Lehman's momentum was halted by the Cougars, though, when Lazare found a wide open Tony Sims cross court beyond the three-point line for a huge three-pointer that pushed the lead back to 12.

After a five minute stretch that featured both teams trading baskets, the Lightning was still within striking distance, trailing 55-44. But in what was becoming a pattern, the Cougars received a clutch three-pointer to stem the tide, as Sims connected once again. His three ended up being the starting point to a decisive 17-5 run that boosted the Cougars' lead to 72-49 with 2:47 left, at which point the Lightning could do nothing but watch the clock tick down.

In the loss, Lehman was led by Garcia, who tallied 16 points, while for the victorious Cougars, Douglas was the game's high man with 17 points. Medgars' leading scorer on the season, Jovan Deare, was held largely in check as he finished with nine points.

The 74-52 final score propels the No. 2 seeded Cougars into Wednesday night's semifinals where they'll meet No. 6 seeded Hunter College, who upset Baruch College earlier in the day.