By Rob Potter
LOCH SHELDRAKE — December 28, 2010 — The Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) Generals basketball team ended the fall semester on a very positive note.
On Saturday, Dec. 18, the Generals defeated the visiting Nassau Community College Lions 77-62 in a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region XV game.
With less than two minutes elapsed in the contest, Nassau CC’s Chris Mauldin swished a 3-point shot to give his team a 3-2 lead. As it turned out, that would be the only time the Lions held the advantage on the scoreboard.
At the 16:36 mark, Cleanthony Early made a pair of free throws to put SCCC ahead, 4-3. For the rest of the first half, the Generals steadily increased their lead.
About a minute later, Frankie Drayton made a pair of baskets in a 27-second span to give SCCC (13-4, 6-1 Region XV) an 8-5 advantage.
Over the next 10 minutes, the Generals went on a 25-8 scoring run to take a commanding 33-13 lead. Early scored 12 points to pace the SCCC offense during the run.
After holding a 40-19 advantage at halftime, SCCC stretched that advantage to 25 points when Early stole the ball and ran downcourt to score an easy basket with 17:19 displayed on the scoreboard clock. The basket made it a 48-23 game.
Nassau CC (6-5, 4-3 Region XV) battled back to reduce its deficit to 15 points at 77-62 when Quentin Tate made a turnaround jump shot with 1:48 remaining.
Unfortunately for the Lions, they were unable to score any more points before the final buzzer sounded.
Early finished with a game-high 30 points to pace the Generals’ offense.
Two other SCCC players, Drayton and Marvin Jean, also scored in double digits. Drayton had 11 points and Jean netted 10 points.
Sophomore center Jordan Thorpe added nine points for the Generals.
“That is a great win,” SCCC Coach Kevin DeVantier said. “We beat a quality team today. It’s a good way to go into the semester break.”
DeVantier was particularly pleased with the way Early and Drayton played.
“Cleanthony has been great in our last couple of games,” DeVantier said. “When he gets the ball down inside the lane, he’s almost unstoppable.
“Frankie Drayton is doing a great job at point guard,” DeVantier continued. “He is a team leader, passes the ball to the open man and takes good shots.”
Mauldin led Nassau CC with 18 points. Kyle Sierra and Tate added 13 points and eight points, respectively, for the Lions.
“We were only down 11-7 and then I looked up at the scoreboard a couple minutes later and we were down 25-7,” Nassau CC Coach A.J. Wynder said. “Sullivan is a very talented and well-coached team.
“I think we played better in the second half,” he added. “We kept playing hard and didn’t give up.”