All the Queensborough Community College men’s basketball team had to do was hold a 12-point halftime lead against an eight-man Hostos Community College squad.
Despite a great early effort, the task proved to be too much for the Tigers.
The Queensborough team led for much of their Tuesday night game with Hostos, but fell behind with less than five minutes to go and eventually lost to the visiting Caimans, 68-64.
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The Tigers are now 1-6 in the CUNYAC and 5-12 overall.
Caiman’s second-year player Darnell Chavis scored a game-high 27 points after coming off the bench and was nearly unstoppable, commanding the lane and pulling down critical rebounds. Second year point guard Jarrick Bowe led Queensborough with 17 points.
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“This would have been a big one,” said Queensborough head coach Larry Dantzler. “We went to the locker room at halftime up 12 points and we fell out of sync and caught ourselves rushing a little bit.”
Dantzler’s team played a commanding first half. The Tigers started the game on a 5-0 run and answered every Hostos basket and then some. Chavis came off the bench and provided nine quick points, but the Tigers still led by a dozen at the half thanks to quick work from Bowe and center Leo Esonwune, who each had 10 points in the first twenty minutes.
With the score at 37-25 at halftime, all Queensborough needed was to play steady defense in the second half to score a huge conference win.
“I really think because we have a lot of freshman and we don’t have a lot of leadership, I think I should have taken it upon myself to get everybody in order to play in the second half,” Bowe said. “In a game like this, it’s all about heart and you can’t teach it.”
The Caiman’s proved they had heart after halftime when they quickly narrowed the margin. Queensborough had several chances to extend their lead while Hostos was slowly cutting into it.
Costly turnovers and missed free throws swung the advantage in the visitors face. Too many second-half fouls cost the Tigers wiggle room and Hostos was ready to answer back.
“Early in the second half I started to see some openings and started picking up,” Chavis said. “My coaches started telling me to pick up the pace and that inspired me to step things up.”
Chavis scored three critical baskets with five minutes to go and Gary Anderson nailed three free throws.
“It’s an important win for us against a team that always comes to play,” said Hostos head coach and Queens resident, Roy Beekman. “We’d been struggling to win close games but we finally got one here.”