The men's basketball team's season came to an end today with an 83-53 loss to Mohawk Valley CC in the NJCAA Region 3 Quarter-Final.
Both teams came out swinging in the first 10 minutes of the game, going basket for basket. The Twins took their only lead of the game at the 15 minute mark, 9-8. That lead was short lived, as the Hawks would score the next five points to take a 13-9 lead. The Twins tied it up 15-15 with 12 minutes remaining in the first half, but the Hawks slowly increased their lead to 10 points just two minutes later. C-GCC battled to narrow the margin for next ten minutes, cutting it back to six with seven minutes to go before MVCC pushed their lead up again to 13 points with three minutes to go. The Twins cut the lead to eight points, but MVCC got an offensive rebound put-back to take a 36-26 lead into the break. "Turnovers were a major problem for us today," said head coach Walter Rickard. "We had 15 turnovers in the first half, and on top of that we struggled to put the ball in the basket." Jordan Hoose led the way in the first half, scoring 11 points, while Tydrea Rodriguez finished the half with nine points.
The second half was all Hawks, as the Twins could not get anything going offensively. "It was a struggle for us to put the ball in the basket today. The shots that had been falling the last several weeks just weren't today," said Rickard. The Hawks went on a 13-2 run to start the second half, and C-GCC just could not recover. "I am very proud of our guys, they didn't quit. We just couldn't get things going in a positive direction in the second half, and sometimes that happens. Unfortunately for us, it was in the playoffs." Rodriguez finished the game as the leading scorer, dropping 14 points. Hoose, who didn't score in the second half, finished with 11.
The Twins finished their season with a 17-13 record and made it to the NJCAA Regional Tournament for the first time in 10 years. "It was a great run. This team did something that hasn't been done in a long time at Columbia-Greene. We went from 4 wins last year to 17 wins this year, which is a great accomplishment. No one outside of C-GCC expected us to be where we were today. We really came together. I am very proud of these guys," added Rickard.