AUBURN - Members of the Cayuga Community College men's basketball team are going to hope for a quick rebound from Sunday's 67-66 loss to Fulton-Montgomery.
Cayuga's Nick Boswell drives to the basket in the Spartans' loss to Fulton-Montgomery. Jason Rearick / The Citizen
Otherwise, they could spend a long part of this season worrying about the little play here or there that could have meant a reverse of the result. Not to mention, James O'Brien's winning 3-pointer.
The Spartans played a choppy, incohesive game to earn their third loss of the season against six wins. Despite this, they would have beaten the hard-nosed and athletic Raiders if it weren't for a borderline miraculous shot.
Cayuga led 66-64 with 17 seconds left in the game and F-M came out of a timeout with possession. With Cayuga coaches imploring their players not to allow a 3-pointer, F-M worked the ball frenetically around the perimeter, causing the Spartans to scramble all over the floor.
With two seconds left, a crosscourt skip pass found O'Brien, the last player whom Cayuga wanted to see with the ball. O'Brien let fly from the right side of the arc, from about 22 feet out, and drained the game-winner with 1.5 seconds to play. It was his fifth 3-pointer of the contest, and it was the Raiders' second one-point win in as many days (they beat Genesee 70-69 on Saturday).
Cayuga's full-court inbound pass was intercepted by F-M's Derrell Thomas.
"That was a hell of a shot, basically," said Cayuga forward Chris Martin (12 points). "We tried to play good defense. It was great basketball, but they came up with the win this time."
The Spartans were out of synch throughout the first half, but they appeared to carry some momentum heading into the second half. A steal by Dashawn Coleman (15 points) and a quick dish to Nick Boswell (team-high 16 points) beat the halftime buzzer for a 31-27 lead.
They extended their lead to 41-33 early in the second half, until the Raiders began clawing back. F-M center Jon Suero hit two foul shots, then stripped Boswell at the other end, leading to a fast break bucket that closed the gap to 45-44 with 12:24 left.
The game went back-and-forth from there, including a technical foul called on Cayuga head coach Derek Jackson that led to F-M's first lead of the half. Jackson was teed up for complaining about a third traveling violation called on Rodney Westbrook as he squared up for a jump shot. Jackson was hardly alone in complaining about the officiating, which by anyone's standard certainly was a conspicuous element of the game.
A diving steal and timeout by Coleman at midcourt gave the Spartans the opportunity to go ahead with 1:31 left in the game. But Brandon Gunn missed two free throws following the timeout, and Martin's steal and breakaway only led to a missed dunk.
But Boswell's weakside follow of a Lamin Zulu miss put Cayuga ahead 65-64, and Coleman was fouled with 17.8 seconds to play, giving the Spartans the chance to go up by two. Coleman missed the first and hit the second after a F-M timeout. The Raiders took over and O'Brien soon had his big shot.
"I can't say I'm not mad about it, but they had us scrambling," said Jackson. "If anything, they should have gotten the easy two and sent it into overtime.
"I just think that us being a team that brings back a lot of people (Cayuga has 10 returners), that we need to be a team that looks like that. We're not playing as much solid basketball as we should be."
The Spartans played a choppy, incohesive game to earn their third loss of the season against six wins. Despite this, they would have beaten the hard-nosed and athletic Raiders if it weren't for a borderline miraculous shot.
Cayuga led 66-64 with 17 seconds left in the game and F-M came out of a timeout with possession. With Cayuga coaches imploring their players not to allow a 3-pointer, F-M worked the ball frenetically around the perimeter, causing the Spartans to scramble all over the floor.
With two seconds left, a crosscourt skip pass found O'Brien, the last player whom Cayuga wanted to see with the ball. O'Brien let fly from the right side of the arc, from about 22 feet out, and drained the game-winner with 1.5 seconds to play. It was his fifth 3-pointer of the contest, and it was the Raiders' second one-point win in as many days (they beat Genesee 70-69 on Saturday).
Cayuga's full-court inbound pass was intercepted by F-M's Derrell Thomas.
"That was a hell of a shot, basically," said Cayuga forward Chris Martin (12 points). "We tried to play good defense. It was great basketball, but they came up with the win this time."
The Spartans were out of synch throughout the first half, but they appeared to carry some momentum heading into the second half. A steal by Dashawn Coleman (15 points) and a quick dish to Nick Boswell (team-high 16 points) beat the halftime buzzer for a 31-27 lead.
They extended their lead to 41-33 early in the second half, until the Raiders began clawing back. F-M center Jon Suero hit two foul shots, then stripped Boswell at the other end, leading to a fast break bucket that closed the gap to 45-44 with 12:24 left.
The game went back-and-forth from there, including a technical foul called on Cayuga head coach Derek Jackson that led to F-M's first lead of the half. Jackson was teed up for complaining about a third traveling violation called on Rodney Westbrook as he squared up for a jump shot. Jackson was hardly alone in complaining about the officiating, which by anyone's standard certainly was a conspicuous element of the game.
A diving steal and timeout by Coleman at midcourt gave the Spartans the opportunity to go ahead with 1:31 left in the game. But Brandon Gunn missed two free throws following the timeout, and Martin's steal and breakaway only led to a missed dunk.
But Boswell's weakside follow of a Lamin Zulu miss put Cayuga ahead 65-64, and Coleman was fouled with 17.8 seconds to play, giving the Spartans the chance to go up by two. Coleman missed the first and hit the second after a F-M timeout. The Raiders took over and O'Brien soon had his big shot.
"I can't say I'm not mad about it, but they had us scrambling," said Jackson. "If anything, they should have gotten the easy two and sent it into overtime.
"I just think that us being a team that brings back a lot of people (Cayuga has 10 returners), that we need to be a team that looks like that. We're not playing as much solid basketball as we should be."
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