By Dylan Butler
In the infancy of the CUNY community college women's basketball championship, there has been only one name on the championship trophy. And after Friday night's third annual title game, there remained that one name as the Borough of Manhattan Community College cruised to a 63-26 win over Queensborough Community College win at BMCC.
“It's not quite a dynasty yet,” BMCC head coach Rodney Carr said after winning his third straight title. “Maybe if we look back 10 years from now we can say that. We've been fortunate to be able to play well every time the championship comes around.”
It was the second time in the championship's three years the Lady Tigers fell in the title game. Queensborough also fell to BMCC in the inaugural title contest held at Queensborough.
But unlike that game, a 52-50 loss, the Lady Tigers were barely in Friday night's game. Leading 16-10 with 5:51 remaining in the first half, BMCC (21-4) went on a 19-2 run to close out the half.
Without a true point guard, Queensborough was helpless against the Lady Panthers press. Man-to-man or zone, it didn't matter. The Lady Tigers could not break any of the pressure thrown at them and turned the ball over 29 times in the first half.
“Our turnovers killed us,” said Queensborough sophomore forward Casandra Garcy, who scored a team-high seven points. “Sometimes we do that, we get down on our game and when we try and come back, it's too late. BMCC is way faster than us. They have a lot of people who can handle the ball. We have a lot of people who can play the inside, but we only have a few who can play the top.”
BMCC also did a great job of getting out into the open floor for several easy layups in the first half. Freshman Chanel Wray (eight points, eight assists) scored on a putback on the break and game MVP Jhimere Putman scored on a layup. Freshman forward Antoinette Daniels (15 points, eight rebounds, five blocks) finished the first half with an impressive sequence, first blocking Garcy's layup attempt from behind and then finishing the break with a layup as BMCC went into the break ahead, 35-12.
“We had to step up our defense a lot,” said Putman, who had 20 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals. “We had to come together. I think we were nervous in the beginning, but once we started talking and getting everything together, we started to play. We get our offense from our defense.”
It was more of the same for Queensborough (8-12) in the second half. It took the Lady Tigers almost eight minutes to scored its first points of the second half. By the time sophomore guard Gina Ruggiano connected on two free throws, BMCC had completed a 21-0 run and led by 42, 56-14.
“When they get flustered, they lose themselves. They lose their positioning, they lose all concept of what we worked on. The ball gets thrown around,” said Queensborough head coach John Filicciardi. “When you're playing a team as good as they are, it just lights up all your inadequacies and puts it right in front of everybody.”
