Forty minutes wasn’t enough and 45 minutes was just too much as the CCNY Men’s Basketball team blow an 11 point lead in the second quarter at John Jay College, losing to the Bloodhounds in the CUNYAC opener 100-95 in overtime Tuesday night.
“It’s real tough,” said point guard Che McCoy after the game. “I feel devastated. We were really supposed to win this game.”
“People were just tired when it was all said and done,” said head coach Tom Green.
McCoy, along with Anthony Lewis both scored 19 points each for the Beavers on the night, however a combined 11 turnovers between the two players, including a key turnover in the final minute of overtime by McCoy sealed CCNY’s fate. They were also two of just three players to play over 30 minutes, as McCoy played 39, Lewis played 36 and Jordan Ortega stayed on for 37.
“Going forward, we just got to learn from this experience,” McCoy added. “We felt like since they had us ranked last in our conference we had to come out with a little more pizazz.”
CCNY looked like a very different team than the sluggish ones that were seen in Sunday’s 75-65 loss to Yeshiva, where the Beavers trailed at one point by as much as 31.
“I just told the guys that we might’ve found a style of play until someone creates a problem for us,” Green mentioned.
“It starts with defense,” Lewis mentioned.
CCNY led throughout most of Tuesday night, leading from the game’s 13-minute mark and taking a 44-36 halftime lead.
“We came in with the idea that we were going to press for 40 minutes and we pressed for 38,” Green added.
They would hold onto that lead until the Bloodhounds rallied back in the game’s final minute, tying the game on Kris Owens’ three-pointer from the wing.
Both the Beavers and Bloodhounds would see the game tied three times, with John Jay tying the game and CCNY taking the lead right back three times in the final eight minutes before Owens’ three-pointer in the game’s final 30 seconds.
“They’re all dogfights in this league,” Green mentioned on the game being so tight.
A free throw by McCoy would tie the game at 82 and send it into overtime where both teams would trade the lead back and forth again until the Bloodhounds’ Korede Griffth would convert one of McCoy’s turnovers into a layup to take an 88-86 lead.
Lareik Taylor brought the Beavers within one after hitting one of his two free throws to make it 88-87 and Khalil Hamer’s three-pointer in the final seconds kept the game within three at 95-92, but a 12-8 run by the Bloodhounds in the final two minutes overall sealed the win for John Jay.
Griffith scored a game high 25 points for the Bloodhounds on the night with Jordan Wells the only other player to score 20 or more with his 22 on 9-for-12 from the court.
“To us, it’s a real good positive,” Lewis said. “We’re still running our program, and for us to stay this close even though we’re ranked last in our conference, and to stay this close and even put these guys into overtime. We take it in the negative because we feel like we had it at one point.”
CCNY (1-2, 0-1 CUNYAC) remains winless after their third game at John Jay in the third season of the Tom Green era, and opens the year with a losing record in the first three games for the second time in three years.
The Beavers return home on Friday, Dec. 6 for the first of a three-game homestand when they will take on Medgar Evers College for their CUNYAC home opener.
