Entering Tuesday night's Garden State Athletic Conference men's basketball game against visiting Atlantic Cape, all indicators pointed toward an easy night for the Roadrunners, No. 10 in the NJCAA Division III National Rankings. Forget what you read in the previews.
But once on the court, the visiting Buccaneers would have none of it, taking the final outcome right down to the waning seconds before falling to RCGC by a 94-92 count. The win was the 13th in succession for RCGC, which improved to 16-2 overall and 12-1 in the conference. The Bucs fell to 6-7 overall and 5-7 within the conference.
Sophomore forward S.J. "Stretch" Hawkins saved the night for the winners with seven points in the final 1 minute 10 seconds while teammates Tyler Lunsford chipped in with a basket and forward Ja'Zere Noel recorded a key block as the Runners avoided a major upset.
"We have all the talent, but you still have to show up every night," said RCGC coach Will Wareham. "No one is going to hand us anything, and that's what we saw here tonight. We kept giving them a lot of second chances, and they capitalized."
On the night, Hawkins finished with a team-high 26 points while Lunsford and Noel followed with 22 points each. Sophomore guard Luciano Lubrano did his part with a timely 16 points.
The two teams stayed fairly even most of the night, exchanging the lead several times before RCGC closed out a 51-46 halftime advantage.
The Runners rolled out to a 76-66 advantage with 7:24 remaining and seemingly on the way to blowing it open. But the Bucs, led by Ayshion Centeno's 31 points, hammered away at the lead and nearly overcame the host team in the final minute of play.
"We know what we're capable of, and it all came down to defense at the end," said Hawkins. "We need to play a little smarter on defense and not let teams have second chances."
Next up for RCGC will be a road trip to Lehigh Carbon CC on Thursday night in a Region XIX tilt.
