No. 2 Men's Basketball Puts Bridgeport Away, 62-56; Pioneers Claim Second Straight ECC Title
Box Score
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (March 8, 2009) – C.W. Post held off a late surge by the University of Bridgeport to claim its second straight East Coast Conference Championship title with a 62-56 win at the Center for Recreation and Sports at Adelphi University. The Pioneers stay undefeated at 27-0 and will advance to play in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
The tournament brackets will be announced Sunday evening at 9 p.m. on NCAA.com.
Senior guard and ECC Championship MVP
Nick Carter (Huntington Station, N.Y.) led all scorers with 18 points on 7 of 17 shooting
from the floor, including three-point field goals.
C.W. Post shot .362 (20 of 47) from field goal range and went 15-for-24 from the charity stripe. Bridgeport closed out the game shooting .426 (20 of 47) and outrebounded C.W. Post, 44-31.
Good defense was the key as the Pioneers scored 29 points off 25 Bridgeport miscues in the game.
A close score through much of the game, Bridgeport made things interesting down the stretch and never let C.W. Post pull too far away.
To start the game, Bridgeport took control and built a sizeable 11-5 lead through the first seven and a half minutes of play as C.W. Post's offense struggled, shooting 2-for-14 from the floor.
Junior forward
James Tchana (Douala, Cameroon) scored a layup from the right post followed by a three-pointer from Carter from the top of the key that cut the lead to 11-10 in favor of Bridgeport. Senior guard
Kenny Burkes (Suitland, Md.) converted two free throws at 9:12 to give C.W. Post its first lead in the game.
The teams exchanged the lead over the next few minutes of play. Sophomore guard Dave Boykin swished a trey from out front at 8:54 before Burkes made two free throws at 7:59. Senior forward Tairez Stennis landed a three-pointer from the right wing at 7:44 before Burkes hit two more clutch free throws to keep the lead within one (17-16) in favor of the Purple Knights.
Sophomore guard Jermaine Washington scored on a reverse layup at 6:44 to lead 19-16. But the lead did not stick as C.W. Post went on a 12-2 run that began with a jumper from Schmidt near the right baseline at 6:09 and ended with a pair of free throws from Burkes at 2:01.
Burkes scored the final basket of the half with a layup from Schmidt as time expired.
The Pioneers twice led by as many as 14 points (42-28) at the beginning of the second half before a 16-3 burst by the Purple Knights that began with a layup from junior forward Demetrious Phillips at 14:02 culminated with a trifecta from junior guard Steve Martin from the top of the key cut the lead to one (45-44) with 7:35 left to play. C.W. Post answered eight seconds later with a three-point field goal Carter from the top of the key.
With 16 seconds left in regulation, Boykin nailed a three-pointer that shrunk the Pioneers' lead down to three (59-56).
C.W. Post kept the Purple Knights at a distance as senior guard
Kenny Burkes (Suitland, Md.) converted a pair of free throws that helped secure the lead with 13 seconds remaining. Senior guard
Jonathan Schmidt (Centereach, N.Y.) contributed with one free throw at the four-second mark to close out the game.
Burkes was 9-for-10 at the line and finished with 15 pionts while Schmidt chipped in 13 for the Pioneers.
For Bridgeport, Stennis was the high scorer with 13 points. Phillips scored eight points and pulled down 10 rebounds.