By Ted Waddell
LOCH SHELDRAKE — December 13, 2005 – If you want to post a win in the scorebook, you can’t let the other team back in once you’re in the driver’s seat.
In Thursday night’s Mid-Hudson Conference basketball game against the visiting SUNY Orange Colts, Sullivan County Community College Generals apparently thought they were going to cruise to victory after the Colts’ number one player Adrian Carvalho didn’t show up.
At the halftime buzzer, Sullivan took a razor-thin 33-31 lead into the locker room.
But despite being up by 11 points midway through the second half, SCCC (7-3) got corralled by the Colts, 71-64.
SUNY Orange (8-2) tied it up 33-33 at 15:34. But about 30 seconds later, the Generals went up by four and a couple of shots later led the opposition 46-39.
At the 13:30 mark, SCCC Coach Chris DePew called a timeout and exhorted his players, “Don’t let ‘em back in.”
The Generals were apparently paying attention, as at 11:17 they were on top 52-41.
However, things started falling apart for the home team as SUNY Orange socked it to SCCC from the free throw line.
At 4:02 the Colts’ Cory Bertholf put the Colts ahead 60-59 by hitting a pair of foul shots.
Twelve ticks of the game clock later, the Generals tied it up as Kevin “KJ” Johnson went 1-for-2 at the free throw line.
Bertholf put the Colts back in the lead (62-60) by converting a pair of foul shots at 3:46.
But SCCC narrowed that lead shortly thereafter when Jason Johnson stepped up to the line and went 1-of-2.
SUNY Orange returned to the line a few more times to post a 68-61 lead with 1:28 remaining in the game.
The Generals got back on the scoreboard with a 3-pointer by Everage Richardson at 1:07. The long-range basket pulled SCCC to within four points.
Unfortunately for Richardson and his teammates, that was as close as they would get in the final minute.
The Colts iced the game from the foul line with the clutch shooting of Bertholf and Stefan Bonneau.
Three SUNY Orange players reached double figures in pacing the team to victory. John Alexander scored a team-high 16 points, Gordon Hurley netted 15 points and Cory Bertholf added 13 points.
For SCCC, Kevin Johnson scored a game-high 20 points and Richardson recorded 19 points.
SUNY Orange held the advantage at the free throw line, converting 25-of-32 (78 percent) shots. SCCC went 8-for-13 (62 percent) at the line.
“It was a tough game,” said SUNY Orange Assistant Coach Walter Rickard. “It’s the first time all year that we’ve been down at the half.
“We battled back, played tough down the stretch and made our foul shots,” he added. “If you make the foul shots and get the rebounds, the game’s over.”
In the wake of a lengthy post-game meeting in the locker room, DePew summed up his reaction to the game in one word.
“S---,” he said. “We didn’t execute when we needed to, and we took ‘em a little light… we saw that their best player wasn’t here tonight, and we laid down.
“We started off well, [but] they hung around and hung around, just like I knew they would, and started to hit some shots at the end of the game,” DePew added. “That’s the way it goes. They deserved to win… it’s a learning experience, we need to regroup.”
Kevin Johnson said that he and his teammates became too comfortable once they had the advantage on the scoreboard.
“We came out strong, but it seemed like we got comfortable with a little bit of a lead,” he said. “We didn’t put ’em away like we should have, and they stuck around and made some big shots.”