Quo Vadis

Issue date: 2/13/10 Section: Sports

The Middlesex County College (MCC) men's basketball team lost against Passaic County Community College in heartbreaking fashion, as the final score was 71-70. Passaic is a fellow team hunting for playoff position just like MCC.
Middlesex was coming off a big win over Brookdale, and it seemed that they were a little hung over from that victory. Passaic jumped all over the Colts from beyond the perimeter early and often and began to pull away at the 8-minute mark, where they led Middlesex by ten points 14-24.
After that barrage of shots by the Passaic offense, Middlesex seemed to finally wake up a bit after a spirited timeout from Coach Lowery. Even though the team pulled within six points of the lead, the Colts looked out of sync all throughout the first half on the offensive side but they would not allow their woes on offense distract them on defense.
As the first half began to come to a close, MCC's seven-man rotation began to show signs of fatigue, due to the vacillating pace of the game as each team pushed the ball up and down the court frequently. Passaic then increased its lead to nine and finished strong with a halftime score of 24-14. Even as they were walking into the locker room, the Colts clearly looked defeated mentally and physically.
The beating continued as the second half began, with Passaic County picking up where they left off. forcing MCC turnovers on defense and shooting lights out from the outside, with the lead exploding to 47-63. At this point, the Colts looked completely lost on both ends and the game was heading for a blowout. Middlesex was in desperate need of a spark.
Sure enough Middlesex received that spark in the form of their leading scorer, Arman Wilson, who finished the first half with 13 points, but would end the game with a career high 38 points. Wilson got hot as the half progressed, driving strong to the bucket, drawing fouls and hitting jump shots from the outside. He even played through a slight ankle injury sustained while driving to the hoop at the four minute mark of the game.
With Middlesex still trailing by 12 points, the rest of the Colts' team seemed to wake up after the effort shown by their teammate Arman Wilson, who displayed terrific trapping defense to force turnovers and get easy lay-ups. Guard Shamai Santiago also stepped his game up on the defensive end of the court and forced Passaic to rush their ball movement and eventually cause turnovers. He also finished with 13 points in the contest. Edwin Guerra also had a strong game, contributing 11 rebounds along with his 6 points. He was a great asset on defense, helping out the weak side and boxing out his man consistently.
After recovering from his ankle injury, Arman Wilson remained effective as MCC stormed back into the game down by only three points with 25 seconds left in the game. But soon after they pulled to a three point deficit, Wilson received his fifth foul on a controversial call, which fouled him out of the game.
With 11.8 seconds remaining, Middlesex forces a monumental turnover and has one last chance to tie the game. After a 20 second timeout, the Colts came out with a beautifully designed play that left freshman guard Yusuf Leary a great look to tie the game from three, but he was just short on the shot. Middlesex fell to a 10-9 record on the season after losing a heartbreaker to Pacific County Community College 71-70.

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