The CCNY men's basketball team digs their hole deeper and deeper as the Beavers drop their seventh game in their last eight.
The losing hasn't stopped.The big plus to the Beavers 78-61 loss to The College of Staten Island is that they looked more competitive against the Dolphins this time around compared to their CUNYAC quarterfinal loss at CSI last spring."I thought we played very hard on defense," CCNY head coach Tom Green said.Defensively, the Beavers looked good, at least in the first half. City held the Phins to just 1-for-8 from beyond the arc in the first half and went into the locker rooms down by just one, 32-31 after a big three-pointer by Matt Wilmot-Stroud with 31 seconds left in the half, capping a 20-10 run after trailing CSI 21-11 with 8:32 left in the first.Despite the late rally in the first, the Beavers shot just 37.5 percent from the court (12-for-32) in the first half, 35.3 percent for the game after making just a third of their shots (12-for-36) in the second."We just simply could not buy a basket," Green mentioned. "The ball did not just go in the basket. You're going to have days like that.""Offensively, we just couldn't buy a bucket for anything," David Solano said."It just didn't work out for us."Solano struggled for the second night in a row, going 4-for-19 from the court with 10 points and four rebounds.Anthony Lewis returned to the court for the first time since Dec. 12 at Hunter, leading the Beavers with 16 points on the night and 11 rebounds off the bench."It's a wonderful feeling to be back," Lewis said."He's got a whole bunch of energy and I know he's going to play at a high level of intensity," Green said about Lewis' return.CCNY had four players, along with Lewis, score in double digits Tuesday night -- Matt Wilmot-Stroud had 14, Khalil Hamer had 13 and Solano had 10.Both teams struggled offensively from the opening tip. Staten Island didn't score the game's first basket until 2:39 into the first, and opened the game on a quick 6-0 run.The Beavers responded with a three-pointer by Salvatore Palazzolo with 15:18 left in the first.Staten Island responded with another layup in the paint to go up 8-3 right after Palazzolo's shot. CSI scored all for their first eight points inside the paint and outscored City 52-14 in the paint overall."We're allowing guys to shoot uncontested layups when we should be, at the very worse, making them go to the free throw line, Green said about the interior defense.Whatever tenacity the Beavers had in the first half surely went away in the second.CSI scored 46 points in the second half, shooting 68.2 percent form the court against City who, despite pulling within one point at halftime, could never spark a run to take the lead.CCNY (4-8, 0-6 CUNYAC) travels to Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn in a game that will feature two teams looking for their first CUNYAC win of the season. The Cougars are 1-11 going into Friday night's game, losing their last 10 in a row.
