Second Half Surge Propels Lightning Men to Victory Over Brooklyn

Box Score

Jan. 18, 2012

NEW YORK, N.Y. - At the end of the first half of the men's basketball contest between Brooklyn and Lehman on Wednesday night the Bulldogs were shooting a blistering 60 percent from the field with star guard Tyhawn Russell sitting on 20 points and looking pretty unstoppable.

Despite all that, the Lightning found itself down only 42-36.

Fast forward 20 additional minutes and the tables had turned significantly as Lehman held the Bulldogs to just 22 percent shooting – and Russell to just three second half points – in pulling out a satisfying 70-61 win over Brooklyn to improve its conference record to 5-1 and rebound from a tough loss to Medgar Evers this past Saturday.

Lehman received strong efforts up and down the lineup to earn the victory with senior George Nimmons fronting the charge with a team-high 16 points. Mathias Raggiotto did not shoot well from the field (5-of-19) in tallying 15 points, but was a factor on the glass with 13 rebounds as Lehman hit the boards hard in the second half to outrebound the Bulldogs 50 to 34. Kelvin Gil also reached double figures for the Lightning with 13 points (3-of-6 3pt FG).

Strong on the backboards as well were Patryk Odedina (nine rebounds) and Sebastian Pessoa (seven rebounds).

Out of the intermission the Lightning immediately cut into the Brooklyn lead on a free throw by Raggiotto and two baskets by Nimmons to trail 42-41. Kavon Baker and John Amil helped the visitors answer the Lightning spurt and following a layup by Keiran Halton, the Bulldogs had upped their lead back to eight points at 51-43 with 13:30 remaining.

That's when the Lightning made its move. Starting with a free throw by Pessoa, Lehman put the clamps down defensively and turned up its offensive game, outscoring the Bulldogs 24-4 to build a 12 point lead with just over a minute to play. Over the defining stretch Raggiotto poured in 10 points, including two three-pointers, and was joined in the scoring barrage by Pessoa (five points), Nimmons, Odedina and Gil.

Russell's lone basket of the second half, a three-pointer, cut the Brooklyn deficit to nine and was followed by a three from Filipp Bochkov that drew the Bulldogs to within 67-61 with 34 seconds remaining, but it was too little, too late to matter in the final outcome.

Lehman is back in action on Friday when the team travels to Queens to face York College.

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