CCRI Roundup

Red Hawks sneak by Knights

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The CCRI men’s basketball team traveled to Queens, N.Y. to take on the 5-1 Red Hawks of LaGuardia Community College. The Knights lost to the Red Hawks 61-57. With the loss, the Knights fell to 6-4 on the season.

The Red Hawks took advantage of their home court to take a 34-26 lead into the halftime break.

The Knights were able to turn-up the defensive pressure to erase that eight-point deficit and take their first lead since early in the game. At 45-44 with 10 minutes to go in the game, captain Malieke Young (Providence, RI) drained a long 3-pointer to give the Knights the lead.

The Red Hawks regained the lead moments later, but freshman Marshall Nelson (Perth, Australia) made two free throws to knot the score at 51-51 with 5:42 to play. 

The Red Hawks again took the lead on a 3-pointer from Juan Ramos-Rivera, which was answered by Knights’ captain Anthony Jernigan (East Hartford, CT) to knot the score at 54-54 with about five minutes left in the game.

During the final five minutes, intense defense by both teams caused many challenged shots and forced several turnovers.

A strong baseline layup by the Red Hawks’ Darnell Holmes put LaGuardia in front, 59-55, with just 40 seconds left.

However, the game was not over as the Red Hawks fouled Jernigan with only 25.6 seconds left and he sank both free throws to bring the score to 59-57.

The Knights were unable to extend the game with a foul and the Red Hawks scored an easy layup as time expired to win by the final score of 61-57.

Leading the way for CCRI was freshman Center Grant Gillis (Jamestown, RI) with 12 points and eight rebounds, followed by Jernigan with 11 points, five assists and five rebounds.

Also helping the Knights was Young, who added nine points on three 3-pointers with five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Defensively, they got help from captain Jerome Harris (Hartford, CT) with a game-high five steals to go with four rebounds, four points and two assists.

“Our defensive intensity was very good today, as we held a high-scoring offensive team to only 61 points,” head coach Rick Harris said. “We still need to work on our offensive sets and find easier ways to score the ball against aggressive defensive teams. So that is the challenge we face as we prepare for another regional game at Springfield Tech Wednesday night.”

The Knights travel to Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, Mass. on Wednesday evening to play the Rams of STCC for a Region XXI non-league game, beginning at 6 p.m.

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