CCNY Falls to Baruch for Seventh Straight Loss

I’m not one to rely on clichés but David and Goliath is totally an appropriate and accurate description of Tuesday night’s game.The CCNY Women’s basketball team lost their seventh straight game, falling to the visiting Baruch Bearcats 81-57 at home. CCNY dropped to 4-18 for the season with their hopes of improving their playoff seed drifting further and further away.  The Lady Beavers are currently holding onto the eighth and final playoff seed with the CUNYAC playoffs quickly coming.If the season ended Tuesday night, City would take on Baruch in CUNYAC playoff opener, a team they are now 0-2 against this season, losing both games by a combined 50 points.“Well, they were, what 13-0, 14-0 in the league and we were the exact opposite so I knew it was going to be an extreme challenge. I was impressed on how we started the game”, said head coach Jamie Angeli after the game. “They’re a team where you can’t make a lot of mistakes or they’re going to capitalize. Obviously, they’re deep and they’ve got talent. They just wore us down, the press just wore us down as the game went on”.CCNY came into the game hungry, believing they could pull the upset.It showed in their attitude and hustle. This faith manifested itself into a great start for the Beavers.By the first time out, called by Baruch, City jumped to an early 7-2 lead. The Bearcats responded with an 11-0 run to take the 13-7 lead and never looked back.“I think we were both surprised; both teams were surprised at how hard we came out in the first half. But you know, we just, I don’t know what’s with us. We just can’t finish a game lately, unfortunately”, said freshman Liz Durchhalter when asked about the loss. She went 5-8 from the court with five rebounds and was tied for the team-lead with 14 points.Despite getting blown away at home by Baruch, the high-spirited freshman was still confident in her team and optimistic about their future.“We’re thinking more like, progress over results. Every game, we just get better and better. I think we’re just getting better and better and it’s anyone’s game in the playoffs,” she mentioned.In the first half, after suffering an 11-0 run that gave the Bearcats a 13-7 lead, City battled back, taking back the lead off of a three-pointer by Durchhalter. It was one of her team-high four three pointers and it appeared to give the Beavers new life.Unfortunately, City was outmatched due to the fundamentally sound play by Baruch, coupled with the mismatch of speed and size.Baruch’s defense was swarming, tallying 11 steals and more than 25 rebounds in the first half alone. By the end of the first half, Baruch had pulled away with a commanding 10-point lead.When half time had concluded, the game picked up exactly where it had left off. It was as though Baruch had decided to put an end to any thought the Beavers had of coming back into the game. With seven minutes into the second half, Baruch had led by as much as 20 points.“…I didn’t see much adjustment. It was more of just wearing us down. Our girls are tired,” Angeli added.“We have six or seven in our rotation and they’ve got eight, nine or ten. I think we just got physically worn down and we just couldn’t just get back in transition enough. They athletic and they’re tall and they’re running. We’ve got 5’2” boxing out 5’ 10” and 11”, it’s just hard and eventually it just wears you down… Physically we just couldn’t match up with this team and they just, imposed they’re will on us as the game went along”.The loss marks the Lady Beavers seventh straight and had their sixth loss of the season by a margin of 20 or more. It was also their second worst loss during the current losing streak.CCNY will look to rebound in their final non-conference game of the season when they host the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Thursday night at 7 p.m.