Interview with Coach Schulman
Bronx, NY – The Lehman College men's basketball team will once again find themselves in the CUNYAC Semi-Finals on Wednesday night. This marks the fourth time in as many years that the Lightning have made the semi-finals.
Lehman (17-9:11-5) earned the three seed on the strength of their regular season. This past weekend the Lightning rolled over Hunter 87-60 in the quarter-finals. Lehman has now won nine of their last 10 games. With the sole loss coming against # 1 seed CSI, a two point loss on the road.
Lehman will take on # 2 CCNY (16-9:12-4) at 8:00 pm on Wednesday night. As the number two seed the Beavers received a bye although the way to the semi-finals.
Lehman features a balanced scoring attack this season. Five players are averaging double figures.
Andrew Utate leads the team with a 13.5 points per game average. Newcomer
Damian Bellamy is averaging 12.7 points and a team leading 7.9 rebounds per night.
Luis Hernandez,
Mylo Mitchell and
Jean Marcial are all averaging between 10.7 and 11 points per contest.
The Beavers swept the Lightning in the season series taking the two games by scores of 74-66 and 99-79.
In the game played at the APEX back in November,
John Brens paced the Lightning with 13 points and four assists. Utate added 12 points, four assists and three steals while Ed Pasqual chipped in 11 points. The Lightning out-rebounded the Beavers 42-40 and were able to force 23 turnovers but struggled offensively, as Lehman only made 38% of their field goals (26-68), 20 % for their three pointers (3-15) and 58% of their foul shots (11-19). With the game was tied at 23, with six minutes to play in the half, the Beavers went on a 15-5 run to end the half. Six minutes into the second half the Beavers were able to extend their lead to 15, 49-34. The Lightning battled back cutting the lead to five on several occasions in the second half but could not get any closer. The Lightning again struggled shooting the ball as Lehman made only 24-63 (38%) attempts.
In the rematch at CCNY, despite 18 points and nine rebounds by
Damian Bellamy the Lightning came out on the short end of a 99-79 decision against CCNY.
Brens,
Mitchell,
Hernandez and
Marcial all tallied double figures. Five and half minutes into the game CCNY built up a double digit lead and never looked back. Lehman trailed 43-28 at halftime. A 9-0 run by the Beavers to start the second half extended their advantage. Lehman was able to cut the lead to 12, 84-72 with 4:41 to play after a Bellamy lay-up. However, the Lightning were not able to get any closer.
The winner of Wednesday nights' contest will face the winner of the CSI- Baruch game on Friday for the CUNYAC crown and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Fans unable to make the trip to upper Manhattan and Nat Holman Gymnasium at CCNY can follow all of the action via live stats.
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