By Ted Waddell
LOCH SHELDRAKE — December 10, 2002 – There’s a big difference between a win and a whupping.
On Sunday night, the Generals of Sullivan County Community College (6-2) skinned the Lehigh-Carbon Community College (Pa.) Cougars 96-47 after taking a 51-22 halftime lead into the locker room.
It wasn’t really a very competitive contest “Down in the Bunker” at Paul Gerry Fieldhouse, but the Cougars refused to throw in the towel against a superior men’s basketball team.
“It was an experience playing these guys,” Lehigh Carbon Coach Bob Mazziotta said. “There was a real disparity of talent out there.”
“They’re very quick and good,” he said of the Generals. “These guys can play!”
On Saturday, the Cougars lost a one-point heartbreaker to Philadelphia Community College (PCC), the perennial conference front-runner, as a PCC player sank a 30-footer at the buzzer.
Lehigh Carbon (4-5) is a member of the Northern Division of the Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Division. SCCC belongs to Region XV of Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
“Steve Parr played pretty well,” said Mazziotta. “Tykee Copeland is usually our best scorer, but he was a little off tonight.”
Copeland led the Cougars’ attack, scoring 14 points against the Generals.
“It’s a win,” SCCC Coach Chad Beeten said. “They weren’t necessarily up to our par, [and] we came out ready to play hard . . . we have a lot of horses, and we wore them down.”
Beeten said that while pleased with the 49-point victory, he hopes his young team will have their mettle tested in more close games.
“We need to learn a lot more,” he said.
Beeten credited the reserves with playing well late in the game.
“They came off the bench and did a great job,” he said.
After the game, Chris DePew, SCCC’s Athletic Director and Generals’ Assistant Coach, dug out some little known facts from his bag of stats.
“We have a 43-game [home] winning streak, and we haven’t lost a game in this fieldhouse in 1,094 days,” DePew said.
In the wake of dropping their first two games on the season, the Generals have now won six in a row.
Three Generals made it into double digits: Darren Sykes (15), Gary Jones (14) and Joe McCleod (12).
The Generals return to their home court tonight to take on Dutchess Community College in a Region XV contest. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.