By Dylan Butler
Or is it that he followed that up two days later with 31 points on 18 shots in Queens College's 88-69 rout of Mercy College Saturday afternoon in Dobbs Ferry?Perhaps it's that the skinny shooting guard with the sick jump shot scored a combined 75 points in back-to-back NYCAC road wins in the second meeting against both teams.Wierzbicki increased his scoring average to 25.5 points per game – fourth in the nation among Division II schools – and also had five assists, four steals and two rebounds in 31 minutes against Mercy Saturday.The only minus? He went 4-of-8 from the foul line.”You had to mention that?” the junior from Maspeth joked.Wierzbicki, who rarely seems to break a sweat and almost never forces a shot, said he was prepared for tighter defense his second trip through the league and spoke to shooting guru Jerry Ingenito about that possibility during his daily 90-minute workouts.”He really stressed that guys are going to be playing me hard now so I've been really working on getting low and using screens,” Wierzbicki said. “I think that's helped a lot.”Knowing teams would get up on him outside the arc, Wierzbicki took his game to the hoop Saturday, scoring a bevy of points on layups in transition. He also shot 3-of-5 from three-point range. He was named the NYCAC Player of the Week for the fifth time this year.Wierzbicki isn't the only one pleased as punch that he had a breakout week. If the former Cathedral Prep star is scoring, that means he draws attention away from Shaun Bertin.The Queens senior forward had 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Knights dominated the boards, 41-28 and shot 54.4 percent from the field for the game. Lance Hazel added 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting.”They shade him so much that they leave the other side of the court open,” Bertin said. “It opens everything up for everyone else.”Chanze Wellington had 16 points – 15 of which came from beyond the arc, Dominick Cuzzi had 13 points, seven rebounds, an intentional foul and a technical foul and Victor Sidberry had 11 points for Mercy (4-13, 2-9 NYCAC), which dropped its fourth straight game.Queens (14-4, 10-1) now prepares for a massive showdown with Adelphi (14-4, 10-1) in a battle for first place in the NYCAC. The game, scheduled for Wednesday night at Woodruff Hall, is the second meeting between the two teams. Queens won the first, embarrassing Adelphi, 68-60, Dec. 3.The loss led Adelphi's volatile coach James Cosgrove to meet with his team for more than two hours at Fitzgerald Gymnasium after the game.”I'm very excited about it,” Queens coach Kyrk Peponakis said. “Wednesday's a day we came here for, it's why we came here and it's what we're trying to do.”Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
