Tigermedia - 2015 CUNYAC Championship - Women's Basketball Finals: Queensborough vs. Bronx CC
2015 CUNYAC Championship - Women's Basketball Finals: Queensborough vs. Bronx CC
Date: February 20th, 2015
Duration:
1h:35m:29s
February 20, 2015
Summary provided by CUNY Athletics.
One season removed from losing three times to the eventual champion Queensborough Tigers, the Bronx Broncos came away with their first CUNYAC/Army ROTC Community College Women's Basketball Championship victory in three years of existence.
"It feels great," said 2-time CUNYAC Player of the Year and Tournament MVP Hivelize Escobar. "They went 3-0 against us last year, so this year we did it to them."
The teams went shot for shot early in the game. Named the 2015 CUNYAC Player of the Year, Escobar opened the evening's scoring with a nifty drive at the 19 minute mark. Whitney Hogan scored 30 seconds later to open the scoring for the Tigers.
A pump fake by 2015 CUNYAC All-Star Trisha Toussaint outside the arc created a lane for her to drive to the hoop and score on an easy layup to make it 4-2. On the second consecutive sequence, a Queensborough player missed a wide-open, uncontested layup, but this time Khadija Carroll was on the scene to put back the rebound and tie the game at 4-4. The two semifinal Players of the Game, Queensborough's Daomi Burch and Bronx's Escobar, traded three pointers before Toussaint re-extended the lead to 4 with a three of her own.
At the 13:38 minute mark, Toussaint went down with what appeared to be a lower leg injury and had to be helped off the court. She wouldn't return to the game. That's when Escobar and the rest of the Broncos picked up the offensive slack.
"I knew something wasn't right," said Bronx Head Coach Pedro Cepeda. "Practically the whole team was in tears at halftime, but they united together."
"Coach said if this isn't motivation, then we simply don't want it," said Escobar. "We wanted it for her, we had to do it for her."
The Broncos immediately followed the injury by opening up a 12 point lead behind a 14-4 run. Eight of those 14 points were delivered by Escobar.
After a two minute and 14 second lull in the action, Bronx's Angel Mbamalu extended the lead to 35-20 and later put back a rebound to give the Broncos a game high 17 point lead. Dominique Edwards hit a three pointer for Bronx with less than 30 seconds remaining, and Minaya narrowly missed a buzzer-beating three pointer that would have been an exclamation point on a dominant first half.
At the half, Bronx was comfortably in the lead at 42-27. Escobar led all scorers with 14 points. As a team, Bronx was shooting an impressive 51.6% from the field.
The teams once again traded blows at the beginning of the half. Queensborough gritted their way back to a single digit deficit when Daomi Burch hit a 3-pointer to make it 49-41 Bronx. Everytime the Tigers tried to mount a comeback, the Broncos answered and wouldn't let them get close to evening the score.
The Tigers finally did break through, getting to within five points, but Minaya drained a three pointer that killed the Queensborough momentum and Angel Mbamalu buried a layup with 1:17 remaining to extend the Broncos lead back to 9 points. The Tigers fought to extend the game, but Escobar sealed their fate by making her last four free throw attempts. The Broncos held off every comeback attempt in the final minutes to emerge victorious with a final score of 69-58.
Escobar led her team to victory by pouring on 28 points to go with 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Following back-to-back games with over 20 points, Hivelize was honored with the CUNYAC Tournament MVP.
"Hivelize is like our Michael Jordan," said Coach Cepeda. "She accomplished what she wanted to accomplish tonight."
Angel Mbamalu of Bronx also earned a spot on the All-Tournament team after being one rebound shy of a double-double tonight with 10 points and 9 boards.
Despite the loss, Khadija Carroll had an excellent showing in the final for Queensborough as she tallied a double-double with 16 points and 17 rebounds. Daomi Burch joined her teammate on the All-Tournament team after she racked up an impressive 13 points in the final game.
With the Broncos become the first #3 seed in CUNYAC history to come out victorious in the Championship game.