By Rob Potter
DELHI — March 16, 2010 — One thing was for certain when Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) and Herkimer County Community College met on Saturday afternoon in the fourth place/sixth place game of the 2010 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III Men’s Basketball National Championship Tournament in the Floyd L. Maines Arena in the Clark Field House on the SUNY Delhi campus.
That certainty was that a team named the Generals would win the game.
Unfortunately for the SCCC players, coaches and fans, it was the Herkimer Generals who prevailed by the final score of 83-76.
The score was tied five times in the early going before Moses Dayee swished a 3-point shot to give SCCC (32-3) a 19-16 lead with 9:34 remaining in the first half.
Thirty-four seconds later, Herkimer’s Cliff Brown hit a 3-pointer from the corner to knot the score at 19-19. Less than a minute later, Brown drove to the basket and scored to give Herkimer a 21-19 advantage.
Herkimer (33-3) took a 39-35 lead into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, Herkimer gradually extended its advantage. The team took its first double-digit lead at 69-59 with 6:41 to go when Akeem Ellis drilled a 3-pointer. Two minutes later, Ellis swished another shot from beyond the arc to make it a 74-59 game.
Brown and Ellis each scored a game-high 29 points to lead the Herkimer offense.
Ian Austin-Michaud added seven points for Herkimer.
“Rebounding definitely helped us get the lead today,” Herkimer Coach Matt Ridge said. “The biggest thing offensively was being able to create space between players. Once we had that space, we were comfortable and able to make some shots.”
Dayee and Evan Pope each scored 19 points to pace the SCCC offensive attack. Most of Dayee’s total came from five successful 3-point shots.
In recognition of his excellent play in the three games, Dayee was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Dwayne Wade and Jordan Thorpe added 14 points and nine points, respectively, for SCCC.
“I think we just ran out of offense,” SCCC Coach Kevin DeVantier said. “We just didn’t have anything left at the end.
“Moses Dayee was outstanding for five halves of basketball,” DeVantier continued. “He played almost all of the 120 minutes for us. I think he ran out of gas in the second half today.”
DeVantier noted that his players were still feeling the effects of losing starting shooting guard Terry Coleman to an ankle injury in the first minutes of Thursday afternoon’s tourney opener.
“I don’t think we ever recovered from Terry going down in the first half of our first game,” DeVantier commented. “It’s one thing to go out there and get beat with your best players on the court. It’s really tough to play and not have one of your best players out there.”
Despite losing Coleman to injury and being defeated in two of its final three games, DeVantier noted that SCCC’s season was an overall success. The Generals won the regular season Mid-Hudson Conference (MHC) title and then captured the MHC Tournament championship. Two weeks ago, SCCC won the Region XV Tournament at Westchester County Community College in Valhalla to earn the trip to the national tourney at SUNY Delhi.
“It’s been a great season,” DeVantier said. “The team worked very hard and won more than 30 games. We ended up with a record of 32 and 3. In the NCAA Men’s [Division I] Basketball Tournament, there are only two or three teams that have won more than 30 games.”