By Dylan Butler
They worked so hard during the regular season to earn a New York Collegiate tournament home game. And for portions of their quarterfinal game against New York Tech Tuesday night, the Queens College men’s basketball team looked like the team that deserved that honor.
The Knights were aggressive on defense, blocking shots and grabbing defensive rebounds while they pushed the ball on offense, crisply moving the ball around the perimeter and knocking down open jumpers.
Queens played so well, in fact, they had a 19-point lead five minutes into the second half. It appeared the Knights were well on their way to a berth in the semifinals, which again would be played at Fitzgerald Gymnasium.
But the Knights just couldn’t close the door. New York Tech clawed their way back into the game and tied the score at 81 on Brian James’ three-pointer from the top of the key with 01.6 seconds left in regulation. The Bears carried that momentum into the overtime to stun the Knights, 94-89.
“I’ve always said it, ‘we have to play 40 minutes,’” said Queens coach Kyrk Peponakis. “They made their shots at the end. We had them a couple of times and we didn’t put them away. We let them back in.”
No. 6 New York Tech (15-14) advances to Friday’s semifinal against the winner of the Philadelphia University/Bridgeport quarterfinal game. An NCAA at-large bid is now unlikely for Queens (17-10), which will have to wait to see if an ECAC invitation is forthcoming.
No. 3 Queens went on a 20-5 run to take a 30-13 first-half lead. But the Bears, fielding a team of just six players, fought their way back and cut their deficit to 10, 39-29 at the break.
Queens again came out on fire in the second half and, on a three-pointer by Dave Trani (17 points), the Knights had their largest lead of the game, 53-34, with 15:31 left in the second half.
New York Tech bent but did not break. Runs of 16-2 and 16-5 gave the Bears a 72-71 lead with five minutes left. Queens regained the lead and was up by three with 15.9 seconds left when James delivered the crushing blow, shaking Steve Sikiric at the top of the key and draining the trey to tie the score.
After scoring just two points in the first half, James finished with 24 points, while Jared Bird led the way with a game-high 30 points for NYIT. Sikiric led five Queens players in double-figure scoring with 20 points.
“Without a doubt, this was the biggest show of heart a team of mine has ever shown,” said New York Tech coach Sal Lagano. “Not only did we come back, we did so against a talented, well-coached team on its home court. Only a team with character can do that.”
Queens women fall to Dowling in NYCAC quarters: Elena Rakova, who was named to the All-NYCAC first-team, had a quiet 17 points and 14 rebounds for the fifth-seeded Lady Knights (15-12) in a loss at No. 4 Dowling (17-10) Tuesday.
In addition to Rakova’s NYCAC honors, freshman point guard Erin Dollard was named the conference Rookie of the Year as well as All-NYCAC second team.
