Boxscore
PHILADELPHIA – A missed free-throw by the Lightning with five seconds on the clock resulted in an 80-79 loss to Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference foe Chestnut Hill for the Goldey-Beacom College men's basketball team on Wed. night at Sorgenti Arena.
The Lightning fell to 14-9 overall and 9-4 in the CACC with the loss. Chestnut Hill improved to 9-12 overall and 6-7 in the league.
Senior guard Darnell Cephas gave a valiant effort for Chuck Hammond's Lightning, posting a career-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field (6-of-6 from behind-the-arc), dishing out five assists and grabbing three steals and three rebounds. Freshman guard A.J. Picard also recorded a season-high 12 points on 4-of-5 from the field, including a perfect 4-of-4 from long-range.
Terrence Parkes, the team's 6-foot-6 senior forward was 7-of-14 from the field as he poured in 19 points and seven rebounds. Recent 1,000-point scorer, senior point guard Azeez Ellegood had a solid outing with 12 points and six assists while committing just one turnover. Also, senior swingman Sam McDuffie came off the bench to score 11 and pull down five rebounds.
GBC had no answer inside for Griffin forwards Dan Comas (21 points, 12 rebounds) and Mark DiRugeris (24 points) as CHC held a commanding 36-29 rebounding edge and 46-20 advantage in points in the paint. Chestnut Hill also did a good job turning 14 Lightning turnovers into points as the Griffins opportunistic defense cashed in for 21 points in that category compared to just five by GBC.
Both teams shot well (CHC 53-percent, GBC 49-percent), but the Griffins dominated the paint while the Lightning lit it up from long distance (15-of-29 to 4-of-12). GBC shot more three-pointers (29) than they did two-point shots (28).
Chestnut Hill had the upper hand early as the Griffins soared to an early 13-5 lead after about five-and-a-half minutes had elapsed.
After Cephas and DiRugeris traded baskets, the Griffin lead was 15-7 at the 13:42 mark when McDuffie's conventional three-point play and Cephas' three-point field goal highlighted a 6-1 mini-Lightning surge to pull within three, 16-13.
But quickly the Chestnut Hill lead was back up to seven, 20-13 with 12:32 left in the opening half. The Griffins extended the lead to eight at the 8:50 mark despite another Cephas three and a jumper by Parkes.
At that point, the Lightning three-point assault began to kick into high-gear as Picard knocked down two in a row and Ellegood nailed one at 6:11 to cap a 12-3 run that put GBC in front by one (30-29) for the first time since a 3-2 lead at the 18:21 mark.
Chestnut Hill responded with a 10-0 run over the next four minutes to take a 39-30 lead as the two-minute mark of the first half was approaching. Again, the freshman Picard stepped up with two consecutive three-pointers, both assisted by Cephas, as the Lightning closed out the half on a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to 39-36 at the break.
The Griffins grew their lead to 43-38 a little over two minutes into the second stanza, but an 8-2 Lightning run that included another Cephas three helped the Lightning claim a 46-45 lead at 15:48.
In a matter of 1:30, CHC went on a 6-0 run to take back a 51-46 lead, but again Cephas stopped the bleeding with another shot from long-distance. Then, following two free-throws by Comas, Ellegood hit another of his three-balls and the Lightning trailed by just one, 53-52.
After nearly three minutes of scoreless action, a Comas dunk ignited the Sorgenti Arena crowd at 11:36, but Ellegood would silence the Griffin fans with another three-point field goal to tie the game at 55 with 11:09 to play.
DiRugeris would convert a conventional three-point play at 10:35, but consecutive layups by Parkes and McDuffie gave the Lightning back the lead, 59-58 with just under 10 minutes to go. Again the lead went back-and-forth as CHC's Trenton Davidheiser made a three only to have Parkes score on a three-point play (layup and a free-throw) right back at the other end at 8:42.
Parkes added two free-throws at 8:27 to up the Lightning's margin to 64-61, but a 7-0 Griffins spurt put CHC in front 68-64 with 5:46 showing on the clock.
Ellegood's fourth and final three-pointer of the day tied the game at 70, and following a DiRugeris layup, Parkes made his only three-point field goal of the night (he was 1-of-4) to put the Lightning up, 73-72.
A jumper by McDuffie made it 75-72, but consecutive layups by DiRugeris and Uros Kovacevic gave the Griffins a 76-75 lead at 1:55. Right back down the court came the Lightning, and just 14 seconds after Kovacevic's layup, Cephas knocked down his sixth three-pointer in as many attempts to give the Lightning a 78-76 lead with 1:41 left.
But Kovacevic took the game over from that point on. The Griffin reserve hit a jumper to tie the score at 1:04, grabbed the defensive rebound off a McDuffie miss with 47 seconds to go, and made the eventual winning layup with 11 seconds remaining to put CHC up 80-78.
Out of the timeout, McDuffie drove to the rim and drew a foul by Francis Ashe with five seconds left. He was 2-for-3 at the foul line coming in, and he made the first to pull his team within one, but missed the tying shot.
Brandon Williams hauled in the rebound for Chestnut Hill, and by the time he was fouled, there was just one second showing on the clock. Williams missed the front-end of a one-and-one, but GBC had no time to get a realistic shot at the basket as time expired.
GBC fell to 3-6 on the season on the road. The Lightning face another road game next when they travel to N.Y. to take on CACC North foe Nyack College at 3 p.m. on Sat.
