City falls to Brooklyn in a game where the Beavers were colder than the winter weather outside the gym.
By Jeff Weisinger
If there was any way to rebound from a tough loss at Baruch on Friday night, CCNY’s Men’s basketball team needed a win against the second-ranked team in the CUNYAC in Brooklyn College.Despite a 25 point effort by CCNY’s Khalil Hamer, the Beavers were as cold as the weather outside has been, falling to the Bulldogs for the second time this season, losing 86-68 Wednesday night.Although City had three players score in double digits on the night, it was still not enough against a Brooklyn team that seemed to adjust to every adjustment CCNY made throughout the game.“I think Brooklyn may be the smartest team in the league,” CCNY head coach Tom Green said after the loss. “Just how well they play together – we threw a zone at them and they just simply picked us apart totally in the first half. We switched up to man-to-man at halftime, they beat us backdoor and hit their first three shots against out man to man.”CCNY had several chances throughout the first half to take some kind of charge and control of the game, coming within one point of tying the Bulldogs at 10-9 with 14:41 left, going on a quick 6-0 run after falling to an early 10-3 hole to open the game, and came within three points shortly after, trailing 16-13 with 12:39 left on a pair of jumpers by Manfred Cadet.The Bulldogs finished the final 12 minutes of the first half outscoring City 28-21 to take a 44-34 halftime lead.Even though they were still in it somewhat, the Bulldogs opened the second half on fire to seal the win, opening on a quick 6-2 run to maintain a double-digit lead, a margin they would hold onto throughout a majority of the rest of the game except when City pulled within nine points, clawing back to 55-46 with 14:40 left in the half. Jai Kellman scored on a layup on the following possession for Brooklyn to put the Bulldogs back up by 11.Brooklyn led by as much as 16 points in the final 5:25.“We’re just not playing with our thinking caps on,” Green added. “We’re just not playing smart, intelligent basketball.“Come game time, it’s like the light switch is not coming on as it should.”Senior Anthony Lewis scored 16 points on the night and is now 89 points away from the 1,000 career-point mark as CCNY falls to 6-10 on the season and 1-9 in CUNYAC play.With a quick turnaround as the Beavers travel to York College in Jamaica Friday night to take on a Cardinals team that has lost three of their last four games before defeating Medgar Evers Wednesday night.“We really need this win,” Beavers guard Salman Hasan mentioned.