In a showdown of Nationally ranked teams, Mohawk Valley traveled just one exit east on the NYS thruway to take on conference foe Herkimer College.
Early on, both teams battled back and forth with great defensive effort and with highlight reel plays coming from both sides. The Hawks were able to get some early seperation and took a 36-27 lead going into the halftime over the Generals. Jalen Bradberry led the way for the Hawks in the first half with 8 points, Lateef Johnson added 7.
In the second half, early on the Generals took control. A 6-0 run to start the second half saw the Hawks call a timeout to regroup.
At this point Sophmore Lateef Johnson took over by scoring 16 second half points, alongside his teammate Tyruse Boock who went on an 8-0 run of his own to swing back for Mohawk Valley. But some long range shooting by Herkimer, allowed them to gain control of the game despite the Hawks best efforts.
With just 12.4 seconds to play, Mohawk Valley was down by 4 points and called timeout. Out of the timeout, Mohawk Valley scored to cut the lead to 2, and took their last timeout.
With 7 seconds remaining, Herkimer inbounded the ball and was immediately trapped by 2 Mohawk Valley defenders. The pressure forced the Herkimer player down the sideline, where he stepped out of bounds giving the Hawks the ball down 2 with 5 seconds remaining.
Jalen Bradberry drove the ball to the rim and the missed shot came off the front of the rim into the hands of Lateef Johnson. Johnson put the rebound up and in tieing the game and forcing overtime.
A back and forth battle in overtime saw both teams lead by 4 on seperate occasions but ultimately the Generals prevailed by a final score of 93-89.
Lateef Johnson led the way for the Hawks with 30 points. Jalen Bradberry scored 21 points and Tyruse Boock added 15 to round out the double figure scoring for Mohawk Valley.
"This was as good a basketball game as I have been apart of in my time here at Mohawk Valley. The environment was special and we were fortunate to have so much support Hawk fans who made the trip to be there for our group. This was one of those games where it comes down to 1 rebound, 1 bounce your way, or 1 free throw and unfortunately the ball just didn't roll our way late. We have to continue to be process driven not just results driven. If we are going to work to be the type of team who can reach another NJCAA Elite 8, we will need to continue to improve, get healthy, and get more contributions across the board. We have had some really close, competitive games as of late. These will all work as valuable learning experiences for our group. We have nothing by respect for Coach Lee and his program, and we look forward to seeing them down the road this year." Coach Fuller said after the loss.
Mohawk Valley travels to FMCC this Wednesday, for the first of 4 games this week.