By Dylan Butler
But on Saturday night, Sikiric didn't have the answers.The senior forward, who is one of the top players in the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference, struggled for a seventh straight game and the Knights saw their three-game winning streak snapped up by New Haven, 79-75 Saturday afternoon at Charger Gymnasium in West Haven, Conn.Queens (15-6, 13-5 NYCAC) dropped to third place in the league, a game behind Bridgeport and four back of Adelphi, which has won 13 straight games and hosts the Knights in a game slated for Wednesday night. Sikiric finished with 18 points, but he shot 6-of-18 from the field and was 0-for-4 from 3-point range. The Maspeth native had a breakout game against New York Tech Jan. 18, when he scored all 32 of his points after halftime in a 92-90 overtime win. Everything came so easily for Sikiric that night, but he's had to work for every point ever since.”I just have to play my way out of it,” said a dejected Sikiric. “It will come around sooner or later, I'm not worried about that.”Bradd Wierzbicki tried to pick up the slack, scoring a game-high 23 points, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the first half to bring the Knights to within 39-30. Queens could have taken over the game early in the second half, but forced the issue offensively and the result was a bevy of costly turnovers.”We did get them to miss some shots, but we gave it right back to them,” Hassan Washington said. “A few times we tried to force the pass into the post. We knew our shots weren't falling so we tried to force it inside but we weren't making the right decisions.”New Haven (7-12, 6-10), which won back-to-back games for only the second time this season, capitalized and opened up a 61-44 lead with 7:55 left in the second half on a pair of free throws by Bryan Moriarty, who was 9-of-10 from the foul line and finished with 16 points.”I thought the pace was a little fast for us but we made enough plays in the first half to get ourselves the lead and we were able to hang on,” said New Haven coach Jay Young, who has seen a renewed commitment from his players following a 50-35 loss at Adelphi Feb. 1.Queens rallied, scoring easy buckets off its press and got within 73-70 on a Sikiric basket in the paint with 38.9 seconds left. Jamaal Brooks, who scored a team-high 20 points, went 1-of-2 from the foul line with 30.2 seconds left, but Washington came down and forced a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 23 seconds left. It bounced off the rim and ended another comeback bid for Queens, which rallied to beat New York Tech, St. Thomas Aquinas and Dowling this year.”I always tell them you can't just flip the switch,” Queens coach Kyrk Peponakis said. “Some games have come easy for them, but now it's work time and we're not good enough. Sometimes we are.”After playing at Adelphi Wednesday night, Queens is home for C.W. Post Saturday at 7:30 p.m.Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
