Photo by Curtis Ashley / Beaver Beat
By Curtis AshleySports WriterEverything comes to an end, no matter how good or how bad it is. For the City College Woman's basketball team, something great ended; a five-game winning streak. It comes to a halt as they suffer their first loss in six games, to the hands of the Lehman College Lightning. After a valiant effort to get a win over a top team in the conference, the girls fell short in overtime with a final score of 80-83.The team finds themselves in the middle of the pack, as the season winds down and every team in the conference is looking to grab a spot that will give them the best chance in the postseason. They move back down to fifth, with an overall record of 12-8, and 7-4 in the conference. The loss to Lehman is not as bad as it seems. In their last two losses, the team was defeated by a combined five points, showing they kept it a close contest.Due to an unfortunate injury, Jaime Angeli sat out of the game, and Assistant Coach Jeff Attard took over the reigns. Attard was the head coach at BMCC last season, giving him some experience, and was a part of CCNY before then."I've been coaching college for seven years, some people may not know, so this wasn't my first rodeo," Attard said in a post-game interview. "I couldn't be more happier with the girls. They stuck to the game plan, we had a chance to win in regulation, and that's all you ask for."Tiara Brown had another double-double, her 14th on the year. She ended the game with 19 points, 14 boards, and five assists. Erika Richards also had the team-high 19 points, along with four rebounds and three steals.Taylor Pompilio made her return to the APEX Gymnasium at Lehman, after suffering a season-ending ACL injury in a game there last season. On Saturday, she had one of her best games of the season, scoring eight points, grabbing seven rebounds, and notching six assists."Before we came here I was kinda freaking out," Pompilio had to say after the game. "After probably three minutes, it just felt like a normal game. I felt like we played really well, we brought a lot of energy."Even with many great performances coming from CCNY, they did not have enough to put themselves ahead of Lehman. The team struggled to build up any momentum that could have extended their lead, the largest of which was nine, when the team led 20-11. That said, City was also able to keep Lehman's largest lead to only eight. But the most pivotal moment of the game actually came before overtime, in the final seconds of regulation. Pompilio was in-bounding the ball with 22-seconds left on the clock. She got the ball to Brown, who immediately made the layup in the paint to put City ahead 73-71, also giving Lehman one last shot."It just kinda happened, and then we came back and didn't play good defense," Pompilio mentioned."What I drew up in the huddle was basically looking for a quick player, and we have other options off of that. The way Lehman's defense reacted, it was right there. You couldn't ask for a better scenario," Attard said. "Unfortunately our last possession defensively, we had a little bit of lapse, and they ended up coming right back."Overtime was simply the fourth period continued, regarding how each team played. Neither team broke away, but Lehman ended up getting the advantage due to costly fouls by City. The team ended the night with 24 personal fouls, Lehman going 24-of-35 from the line as a result. You can blame it on fatigue. You can blame it on the refs. Either way, this sin't the first time City has been in deep foul trouble in a game, but this time, it cost them the win.After a weekend of basketball throughout the conference, Lehman finds themselves on top. CCNY will now face the number two seed College of Staten Island, their second match-up of the season. City lost to the Dolphins in that game, 57-69. But they also lost to Brooklyn and Hunter in their first match-ups with them, then evened the score later on. This shows the growth of the team since the first half of the season, involving the chemistry that's been a theme as of late. They play CSI on Tuesday, and they are going to need that chemistry to make sure they don't fall in a two-game slump.