Boxscore
WATERBURY, Conn. – Larry Smith's layup with 22 seconds left in regulation proved to be the game-winner as the host Post University Eagles dealt the Goldey-Beacom College men's basketball team a crushing, 72-71 loss in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference play Thurs. afternoon at the Drubner Center. The game was moved up six hours from its original start time in an effort to beat an impending snowstorm.
The Lightning (17-8, 11-5 CACC), who were coming off a 76-65 defeat at Philadelphia on Tues. night, suffered back-to-back losses for just the first time this season with the loss today. They have now lost three of their last five. Meanwhile, Post improved to 12-16 overall and 8-10 in conference play.
Junior forward Sam McDuffie led the Lightning in scoring for the second straight game as he tallied 18 points to go with a team-high nine rebounds. Senior guard Kyle White inched closer to 1,000 career points with a 15-point effort and junior forward Terrence Parkes pitched in with 12.
The Eagles put four scorers in double-figures with Spencer Smith scoring a team-best 17 points. Trevon Hamlet was dominant inside for Post, recording a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds to go with two blocks. Rashamell Vereen and Larry Smith added 13 apiece.
Turnovers plagued the Lightning as Post turned 22 Lightning miscues into 20 points on the afternoon. GBC shot better from the field (45-percent to 42-percent) and held a 46-36 advantage on the boards. Also, the Lightning's bench outscored Post's 17-16 for the game as senior forward Anthony Parham provided a spark with nine points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes of work.
Foul trouble was also an issue as senior forward Troy Esquilin was saddled with foul trouble all afternoon and played just 15 minutes, Parham had four fouls on the day and needed to be monitored all throughout the game, and McDuffie's day was cut short with 3:31 left in regulation when he fouled out of the game. Both teams were whistled for 17 fouls each.
GBC opened the game on a 5-0 run only to allow the Eagles to soar to a 19-0 run over the next 5:31 to take a 19-5 lead at 13:49. Lightning head coach Chuck Hammond used a timeout to settle his team down, and on the next possession, sophomore forward Phillip Brooks stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer at 13:06.
Later, another three by Brooks would bring the Lightning within 22-16, but an 11-2 Eagles run, capped by a Hamlet dunk, gave Post its biggest lead of the day, 33-18. Hamlet was assessed a technical foul for the dunk though, and junior point guard Azeez Ellegood sank both his free-throws and Parkes made a layup on the ensuing Lightning possession. McDuffie's layup 30 seconds later completed a 6-0 GBC run that cut the Post lead to nine with 7:06 left in the half.
Trailing 39-25 with 4:53 left in the half, the Lightning closed out the first half on a 14-2 run led by McDuffie's six points and trailed by just two (41-39) at the break.
Esquilin scored the first three points of the closing half to give GBC its first lead since the early 5-0 advantage in the opening minutes. The Lightning gave the lead right back after a Vereen layup, and the two teams exchanged baskets for a few minutes before Parkes took back the lead for GBC, 50-49 with a layup at the 14:56 mark. He would later add two three-pointers as GBC scored 16 of the game's next 22 points to take its largest lead of the game, 64-55 with a little over 10-and-a-half minutes to play.
But that was when things began to unravel for the Lightning as they shot an abysmal 2-for-18 from the field and committed four turnovers as Post outscored GBC 17-7 in the final 10 minutes of the game.
The Lightning took a 71-70 lead after a Parham layup with 1:21 left in the game. They sent Hamlet to the foul line at the other end, and he missed the front end of a 1-and-1. GBC's next trip down the floor, the Lightning misfired on both a three-point attempt and then a layup before Ellegood was fouled with 28 seconds showing on the clock after he gathered the team's third offensive board of that one possession.
Ellegood, the league's third-leading free-throw shooter at 81.7 percent for the season, could not convert on the front-end of a 1-and-1, which paved the way for Smith's game-winning layup with 22 seconds left in the game. White could not get a last-second jumper to go, and the Lightning fell 72-71.
GBC, already locked into a No. 2 seed in the upcoming conference playoffs, will host CACC foe Dominican College in the season finale at the Jones Center on Saturday at 3 p.m.
