Mohawk Valley CC vs. Hostos
The Mohawk Valley Hawks Men's Basketball team went on the road to Westchester Community College this weekend.
In the opening round, the Hawks took on Hostos Community College at 3:00 PM on Saturday afternoon. The game got off to a quick start as the Hawks controlled the tempo against a very quick and aggressive Hostos team. Isaiah Knight had 17 in the first half alone, and early foul trouble kept several Hawks off the floor for the first half. After leading by as many as 14 in the first half, the pressure of Hostos helped close the gap and had the Hawks leading only 44-39 going into the half.
As the game went on, the Hawks found their groove and were able to lead by as many as 21 points midway through the second half thanks to a heavy presense at the rim by Ike Sheppard and a 15 points burst in 4 minutes by Sophomore Jordan Drain. As the clock closed in under 4 minutes, Jamir Smith did a great job running the Hawks offense and providing heavy ball pressure on Hostos guards. Furthermore, Sophomore Asa Beyah held Hostos' leading scorer to just 2 second half points.
MV closed out the game on a 6-0 run, and were able to win the game by a final score off 88-76, and advance to the championship game on Sunday morning against Community College of Rhode Island.
Coach Fuller had this to say following the win, "I just felt like we had so many contributions from so many different guys today. We had 4 guys in double figures, and had 14 guys play. That's who we are going to be all year, a team that plays together and for one another."
Mohawk Valley CC vs. Community College of Rhode Island
Less than 24 hours after a difficult win over Hostos, the Hawks took the floor against Community College of Rhode Island in an 11:00 AM matchup on Sunday morning.
The Hawks came out with a furious run to start the game, leading by as many as 24 points in the first half, with contributions all over the floor from numerous players. Jordan Drain and Ike Sheppard continued their impressive start to the season, both scoring double figures in the first half and pacing the Hawks. A thunderous Tip Dunk by Drain sparked a 10-0 Hawks run, before the CCRI went a big run of their own going 5-7 from 3 and cutting the lead to just 6 going into half time.
As the second half begun, the Hawks defense made an immediate impact on the game, as they forced 22 CCRI turnovers in route to a run to get the lead back up to 15 with 11 minutes remaining. However, CCRI would not go away. Despite the sharpshooting of Hawks guard Zay Knight (15 points) and the leadership of freshman guard Jamir Smith (13 Points 8 assists, 1 turnover) the hawks found themselves in a battle with 6 minutes reamining.
That is when Jordan Drain took the game into his own hands, and scored 18 second half points to give the Hawks the seperation they needed. His counterpart, Ike Sheppard was also impressive in the second half, and scored 14 of his own points to put away CCRI for good. The Hawks finished the game taking care of the basketball, and making free throws to complete the victory and win the tournament championship by a score of 102-91.
Jordan Drain was named tournament MVP after his 35 point, 13 rebound performance
Ike Sheppard was named all tournament team after finishing with 24 points and 7 rebounds.
Zay Knight was named to all tournament team after finishing with 15 points.
The Hawks also received stellar performances from Jamir Smith (13 points 8 assists), and an astounding defensive effort from Asa Beyah, as he took on the task of guarding CCRI's leading scorer for the duration of the game.
"We made the decision to challenge our team early in the non conference slate, and I'm very proud of how we have played so far. I thought Jamir was phenomanal in how he ran the team today with 8 assists and 1 turnover, Jordan was special again today, and Ike Sheppard really did some great things in the post and with his defensive presense today. We played 11 guys, and got contributions across the board all weekend. Our leadership has been great, Zay and Asa especially. We just need to continue to stay hungry, and I believe we will. It's just in this groups DNA." -Head Coach Harley Fuller