Martinez Puts Up Season-High 33 Points as Men's Basketball Drops Double Overtime Thriller to NYIT
Box Score DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Feb. 14, 2015) – Despite overcoming a 16-point second half deficit and receiving a game-high 33 points from junior Lazaro Martinez (Harlem, N.Y./Mohawk Valley CC), the Mercy College men's basketball team dropped a hard fought 86-82 double overtime thriller to NYIT on Saturday afternoon at Mercy Gymnasium.
The Mavericks (7-15, 2-14 ECC) drop their fifth game of the season by five or less points and first overtime game, while the Bears (11-12, 8-7 ECC) have now won six of their last seven.
Martinez reached his season-high in points on a strong 13-of-23 shooting from the floor and added five rebounds. Sophomore Najee Senior (Bronx, N.Y./Western Okla. State College) came off the bench and put forth one of his best efforts of the season, scoring 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor and 5-of-6 shooting at the line. Junior Jason Quijada (Monsey, N.Y./Rockland CC) rounded out three Mavericks scoring in double figures with 17 points and five boards.
Pacing NYIT was Darian Hooker, entering as the leading scorer in Division II, who scored 31 points and had five rebounds. The 31 points was just above his average of 28.9 entering the game and achieved that total in 49 minutes of action.
Mercy came into the game playing without one of their key contributors and were faced with the tall task of facing an NYIT team that had come in with wins over the top two teams in the conference in Bridgeport and St. Thomas Aquinas over the last week. The Mavericks were also facing the leading scorer in Division II in Hooker who had come in with 40 points in two of the last three games.
Despite all things seemingly being against Mercy coming into the game, the Mavericks would come out and give a valiant effort as has been the case all year under first-year Head Coach Dr. Jody King. Mercy opened the contest taking a 21-15 lead at the 9:43 mark of the first half following a Quijada free throw.
The Bears would respond with a 23-4 run that gave them their largest lead of the frame, 38-25, with 1:03 left before intermission. NYIT headed into halftime with a 10-point lead, 40-30, despite Hooker only putting up six points in the frame as the Mavericks defense stymied him in the first half, holding him to only 2-of-10 from the field.
The second stanza saw the Bears build their largest lead of the game at 16, 48-32, with 17:40 remaining in regulation and it looked like the guests were going to run away with the contest. Mercy had other plans and slowly climbed back into the game and after Senior nailed a free throw at the 11:14 mark to make it 55-42, the Mavericks ensued with an 18-5 run that tied the game up at 60-60 with 6:06 remaining in regulation.
The two teams would trade baskets and Mercy would have a chance to claim the win with the ball late but a turnover with two seconds on the clock led to the first overtime game of the season for the Mavericks.
Mercy jumped out to a 76-73 lead in the first overtime following a Martinez layup with 1:45 left, but a pair of missed free throws with 37 seconds left on the clock would give the Bears an opening and Hooker took it nailing an improbable trifecta to tie it up at 76-76 with 30 seconds on the clock. The Mavericks got another chance to finish off NYIT but couldn't convert and a Hooker three would not fall sending the game into a second extra period.
A Martinez layup at the 3:40 mark of the second overtime put Mercy up 80-79, but four consecutive free throws by Hooker put the Bears up 83-80 with 2:16 remaining. Junior Gerald McClease (New Haven, Conn./Sullivan CC) responded with a layup to cut the deficit to one, 83-82, with 1:52 left but the Mavericks would run into foul trouble as Senior and McClease both fouled out and NYIT responded with three unanswered to seal the win.
The Bears held a slight shooting edge, shooting 42.9 percent from the field compared to 42.3 percent for the Mavericks, but NYIT made a living at the line going 30-of-36 compared to 14-of-24 for Mercy.
Head Coach Dr. Jody King and the Mavericks look to bounce back as they travel to Rochester, N.Y. to take on Roberts Wesleyan on Friday, February 20th at 8 p.m.
