By Dennis Pereira
The Queensborough men’s basketball team played an undermanned Bronx Community College team Jan. 23 and came away with a comfortable 84-61 victory.
Dewayne Thomas busted on the scene and showed off his versatility with 25 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists. Thomas, a former standout at Rice by way of Globe Community College, has already established himself, in just five games, as a go-to guy for the Tigers.
Malik Frazier has been producing from Game One and filled up the Tiger stat sheet again by scoring 21 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out 6 assists. Frazier also showed off his defensive ability by leading the team with 4 steals.
Bronx, which suffered an 84-48 loss to Queensborough (8-7, 7-6 Region XV) earlier this season when it had more players on its roster, still played hard in front of its home crowd but wore down in the second half.
“We’re not a particularly good shooting team but we play good team defense,” said Queensborough coach Tom Sinnickson. “Dewayne has been a big help. We should be that much stronger down the stretch.”
The Broncos only had six players dressed for the game and had a hard time finding offense to keep up with the Tigers. Free throw shooting also hurt Bronx in the first half — they only made 4-of-14 from the charity stripe.
Jorge Diaz almost produced half of the Broncos’ points and finished with a game-high 30 points. Diaz kept the Bronx team close in the first half and actually had his team within two points in the opening minutes of the second half, but from there on the Tigers were in control.
Queensborough went on a run and led by double digits for most of the second half.
Suffolk Community College 94, Queensborough 69. Tamien Trent, who lit up the Tigers in the first game, again gave Queensborough problems by scoring a game-high 23 points on Jan. 21.
Queensborough kept the game close in the first half and kept Trent under control for the most part, but with 35 seconds remaining in the half, two steals led to four easy points for Trent. Those four points pushed an eight-point lead to 12, but Thomas beat the buzzer with a three that put the Tigers back to within 9 points at the half.
That would be the last shot made by Thomas on the night, who finished with 7 points and 7 rebounds. Eight missed first-half free throws by the Tigers also cost them a chance at being within striking distance.
In the second half the Clippers came out and dominated the game. Suffolk made 17-20 from the line and led by 20 points for most of the second half, which showed why it has only lost one game all season.
After hosting Nassau Community Thursday, Queensborough heads north Saturday for a game at Dutchess Community College.
