BC Men and Women’s Basketball Team Defeats York College In Homecoming Game

By Jose Rohdin

The BC Men and Women’s Basketball Teams would come out victorious in their respective homecoming games against the York College Cardinals on Tuesday night.

The night started out with the women’s basketball team defeating the Cardinals 80-48. 

In the women’s game, the Bulldogs started slow. At the end of the first period, they would be down 23-13. This would be in big part due to the Cardinals hitting there first four threes pointers, and the Bulldogs not being able to knock down shots. However, the shots the Bulldogs missed in the first period would start to drop in the second period, as they would close out the half up 41-30.

“We had to get patient offensively, we were just jacking up shots,” Head Coach Alex Lang said after the game. “We weren’t crashing the boards either, so we were getting one and done every time. York started hot and hit a bunch of shots.”

Ericka James and Dasha Goodman would lead the team through the second period. They would combine for a total of 30 points (James 18 and Goodman 12).

The other driving force behind the turn around in the second period was the Bulldogs defense. They would begin to play a full-court defense which would shut down the Cardinal’s offense, only allowing 25 points for the last three periods. 

After halftime, Chanel Jemmott attacked the paint in the first three possessions and going cost to cost four other times throughout the game. She only played 14 minutes with 5 points, but she would find her way to the foul line and grab 9 rebounds in the game. James would continue to be hot, ending the game with 24 points, as Goodman would only take one more shot ending the game with 15 points but also had 10 rebounds. 

The Men’s Basketball Team would win their first game of the season against the Cardinals 77-66.

This game was a back and forth battle until the last 5 minutes of the game. At the start of the game, the Cardinals guards would run wild. Devine Chisholm and Donald Hartley, Jr. found their way to the painted area and drew fouls. For the half, they would combine for 8 of the 10 foul shots attempted by the Cardinals.

After the game, Assistant Coach Albert Barbosa told MYWBCR that he told Kayin Olajide to just go get number 3 (Hartley Jr.) on defense. Olajide would switch from guard to guard, forcing them to shoot a combined 36% from the field. Olajide’s stat sheet only shows him getting two blocks in the first half, but he was all over the place in traps and forcing a turnover, along with drawing charges. 

Olajide defense would allow Michael Tesoriero and Anthony McClean to get hot. They would combine for 22 of the 36 points in the first half, making five threes. With both teams not shooting well from the field, the Bulldogs would have more opportunities with 11 offensive rebounds to the Cardinals 7. This would lead the Bulldogs to take 41 shots making only 13, with six of them being three-pointers. The Cardinals only attempted 26 shots in the half and only taking six three-pointers.

In the second half, the Bulldogs would once again take 20 threes and make 6 of them. However, the Cardinals would take 8 and only make 1. Noah Shy would come alive in the second half, having 10 points and finished with a total of 13. Shy would hit two threes in the second half, along with an in transition and one that had the entire West Quad on its feet. That and-one would go on to energize the team to the victory. A big part of the team’s wins was its ability to crash the boards for offensive rebounds. The Bulldogs would have 22 rebounds to the Cardinals 12, and that would help the Bulldogs put up 23 more shots than the Cardinals, along with 26 more threes. The Bulldogs also were able to finish at the free-throw line, making 15 on 83.3% for the game, compared to the Cardinals 17 on 65.4%. The Bulldogs did not have to be best shooting night, only going 32.5% from the field, but they played tough defense and rebounded and were able to get there first win of the year.

The Men’s next game is Thursday, December 5, against Stevens University in the West Quad at 7 pm. The women’s next game is against Cabrini University on Saturday, December 7, at 1 pm.