By Dylan Butler
A week ago Queens College men's basketball head coach Kyrk Peponakis complained that his Knights didn't play with heart in a 92-77 loss to Philadelphia University last week. Determination wasn't the problem Sunday at Molloy College in Rockville Centre. It was brains, as Queens fell, 75-70.
“We just didn't play smart today,” Peponakis said. “It's about intelligence and we made a lot of stupid plays today. Our intelligence for the whole game was bad. We started taking a lot of bad shots today, mistakes we had not made.”
The loss on Sunday came on the heels of a rousing win over the College of St. Rose, the second- ranked team in the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference.
“We made mistakes at the wrong time,” Peponakis said. “I was happy with our effort, our energy was OK. Now we have to play smart, you have to make the right pass, the right decision and we didn't.”
Queens (9-15, 8-12) led, 52-49, with 10:05 left on two free throws by sophomore point guard Philip Lyons. From there, juniors Malcolm Watson and Greg Mullavey combined to score nine straight points to put Molloy (14-11, 12-9) ahead 58-52 with 7:42 to go.
On a three-pointer by freshman Dave Trani (21 points), the Knights trailed, 65-63,with 3:04 remaining. But Queens made just one field goal, a floater by freshman Gary DeBerry, in the next two minutes.
Molloy was led by guard Omar Kasi, who was honored before the game, along with fellow seniors Reginald Dorsey and Eric Schuh. Kasi had 18 points, seven assists and four rebounds for the Lions. Watson had 17 points and Mullavey added 14 for Molloy.
Queens, which is already in the playoffs and will finish either seventh of eighth of the eight-team field, was led by junior forward Steve Sikiric, who had 24 points. Sophomore center Jurrell Bonaparte added nine points and four rebounds for the Knights.
The win by the Molloy men's team comes on the heels of the women's team's victory over Queens Saturday afternoon. Lauren Elder scored 11 points off the bench to lead Molloy to a 64-58 win. Kiki Dunston, April Gross and Anica Gant scored 10 points apiece for the Lady Knights (7-18, 5-16). Molloy improved to 11-14, 10-11.
CUNY Community College
men's semifinals
In a rematch of the 1999 CUNY title game, the Queensborough Tigers took on the defending champions, the Borough of Manhattan Community College last Wednesday night at BMCC. The Panthers won the game, 77-64, marking the first time in seven years Tom Sinnickson's team did not play for the CUNY crown.
Queensborough (6-17), the fourth-seeded team, had an impressive first half and led by one, 29-28 behind sophomore center Daniel Cowans' 13 points.
In the second half, the second-seeded Panthers went on a 22-3 run over a 6:58 span to break the game open. Sophomore Michael Rocke led BMCC (14-12) with 19 points and CUNY Player of the Year Shabron Bridges added 14 points.
The Tigers were led by sophomore forward Sean Van Dorn, with 22 points. Cowans, a Jamaica native, finished with 17 points and 18 rebounds. Despite trailing 65-44 with 6:23 remaining in the second half, Queensborough scored 14 consecutive points to cut its deficit to 65-58, but that was as close as it would get.
Locals garner CUNY post-season awards
York senior center Neil Edwards and CCNY freshman guard Lauren Cargill were named both named Player of the Year in their respective divisions.
Edwards, a 7-foot center from Far Rockaway, averaged 15.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 7.7 blocks per game. The York senior is the leading shot-blocker in the nation in Division III and his field goal percentage of 63.4 is good for fifth in the nation. Edwards just edged out Greg Hardin from Hunter for Player of the Year honors. The 6-foot-6-inch junior from McClancy High School, was third in the nation in scoring (26.1 points per game) and first in rebounding (13.1 rebounds a game).
Cargill has truly been the collegiate basketball story of the year locally. After tearing her ACL in each knee in her last two seasons at Cardozo High School, the 5-foot-9-inch guard has come back with a vengeance at CCNY this year. She averages 24.0 points per game, good for second in the country. She has also scored a CUNY record 77 three-pointers this season, as well as averaging 4.5 rebounds and 2.2 steals.
The York men's basketball team also had two members on the All-CUNY second team in senior forward Roderick Burnett and junior guard Stanley O'Neil.
Burnett, a 6-foot-5-inch forward, is the defensive leader for the Cardinals. Offensively, the Rosedale native and former Springfield Gardens standout, averaged 9.0 points and 5.2 rebounds a game while shooting 48.1 percent from the field.
O'Neil, a 6-foot-3-inch junior from Flushing, averaged 13.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game. The Holy Cross grad, who was also the 1996-97 Rookie of the Year at Hunter College, shot 36 percent from beyond the arc for York.
Ronald Souffrant and Daniel Cowans from Queensborough Community were named CUNY All-Stars. Souffrant, a sophomore from Elmhurst, scored 18.5 points, 3.5 assists and shot 82 percent from the line. Cowans, a sophomore center, had 13 points and 8.0 rebounds and shot 50 percent from the field for the Tigers.
Tamara Taylor from York was named to the CUNY First Team. The 5-foot-9-inch sophomore forward had 6.7 rebounds and 2.6 steals after being named to the CUNY First Team All-Star as a freshman guard from Jamaica High School averaged 13.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.4 steals and 3.1 assists.
Desirae Ross, a Jamaica native, was also named to the second team. The 5-foot-8-inch sophomore guard from Lehman, averaged 12.1 points and 5.0 rebounds a game for the Lightning.
