ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Feb. 11, 2016) – The mathematics indicate that the Molloy College men's basketball team still has a chance at making the East Coast Conference Tournament. A season-sweep of current No. 6 seed Mercy College is the lone thing that the maroon and white are clinging on to; reasonably, the Lions must win out in order to have any real shot at making the postseason, beginning with Saturday's contest at NYIT.
The Lowdown on the Lions
Wednesday night's 60-57 loss to LIU Post at the Pratt Recreation Center dropped the Lions to a 4-10 record in East Coast Conference play. Molloy held a 25-22 lead after one half of play and held a lead with as little as eight minutes to play in regulation. In fact, the game was tied at 54-all with two-and-a-half minutes to go but the maroon and white missed six consecutive shots before a three from Charlie Marquardt (Rockaway Beach, N.Y.) as the buzzer sounded to end the contest.
Hitting the Wall?
Fatigue sets in. Legs tense up. The body and mind both crash and go limp. It's called hitting a wall, and whether it's Kristaps Porzingis or Jaylen Morris (Amherst, N.Y.), every athlete at one point or another is doomed to hit the proverbial wall in a long and arduous season. After starting the season with 13 straight double-digit performances, Morris has totaled less than 10 points in four of the Lions' last nine games. That includes a season-low two-point effort versus the Pioneers and could provide a distinct representation of the wall that the junior has hit. With 57 points to go until the 1,000-point plateau, Morris will have to do everything he can to get out of the slump he is in and try to guide the Lions to an improbably playoff berth.
Okunpolor Steps Out of the Crowd
One of the more impressive stories to come out of the loss---aside from a 20-point effort by freshman Curtis Jenkins (Farmingdale, N.Y.)---was the bench play of first-year forward Derrick Okunpolor (Lynbrook, N.Y.). The freshman played a season-high 25 minutes and pulled down a year-best nine rebounds versus the Pioneers. It may have been a turning point in the season for the young Okunpolor and it could lead to more playing time for him as the season winds down.
The Languish of the Bears
NYIT has struggled and suffered through most of the season, with a 2-13 record in conference competition and a 3-19 overall record. The Bears' most recent contest was an 84-76 loss in overtime to Queens College in Flushing on Wednesday. Senior guard Khalif Chaplin (Hempstead, N.Y.) rattled off 36 points (6-13 from three-point range) while senior forward Jerrel Green (Stockton, Calif.) added a double-double (21 points & 10 rebounds). New York Tech committed 18 turnovers in the defeat while only scoring six points off of 12 miscues by the Knights.
Chaplin Preaches Points
On Jan. 27, NYIT lost an 89-85 high-scoring affair to Dowling College in Oakdale; the story of the game, though, was a 40-point effort from Chaplin that awakened the senior guard to scoring prominence. Since that game, Chaplin has averaged 28.4 points per contest over a five-game stretch. In that period, the senior guard had knocked down eight field goals in four games while averaging five rebounds per contest.
Defensive Struggles
Points Scored per Game: 72.4.
Points Allowed per Game: 85.0.
Prior Meeting
Molloy won an 88-68 victory back on Jan. 9 at Quealy Gymnasium thanks to a 27-point, 12-rebound showing from Morris, as well as 17 points from Marquardt. The Lions never trailed in a game that was dominated by excellent offensive sets from the maroon and white and a 50% (19-38) showing from NYIT at the free throw line.
