Queensborough Community College led from start to finish, topping the tournament’s top seed Borough of Manhattan Community College, 60-50, to earn the 2010 CUNY Athletic Conference/Con Edison Women’s Community College basketball championship, the schools third straight championship. The final was played at Kingsborough CC.
QCC (9-10) came out of the gates hard, with Olivia Strachan putting the team on her back in the first half, dropping 13 points out her team’s total 30 having hit 3 of 4 three pointers at the break. She led all scorers at the half, while also chipping in 4 rebounds and 2 steals. She finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds and was selected as the Tournament MVP.
“We came out strong from the tip, that was our game plan all along,” said Strachan, a freshman guard from Queens, NY. “We played with intensity tonight and we deserved to win, to three-peat.”
QCC focused on defense, starting the game with a half-court press designed to deny Women’s Player of the Year Eyandra Molina the ball. It worked in the first half, as Molina was held to 6 points on 3 of 9 shooting. The Tigers went into the break up 30-20.
Tigers guard Stephanie Taveras caught fire to start the second half, hitting consecutive three pointers to put QCC up by 14 points and bring the crowd to its feet. She finished with 12 points, all from long distance.
“When Stephanie started making her shots we fed off of that and played even herder on the defensive end,” continued Strachan. “We got contributions from a number of players tonight.”
Molina, the second leading scorer in women’s NJCAA DIII basketball, she finished with 16 points, while BMCC’s Latoya Lee put her stamp on the game, with a game-high 23 points, but it wasn’t enough, as Molina and Lee were the only double-digit scorers for BMCC (11-9).
QCC’s Kiara Bryant had a double-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 steals and Tigers point guard Dominique Williams had a great all around game, scoring 8 points, grabbing 6 rebounds and dishing out 7 assists.
“We’re coming together at just the right time,” said fourth-year QCC head coach Joseph Medina, “We’re playing as consistently as we have all season. Now we can shift out focus to the Region XV Championships.
Joining Strachan (34 points, 14 rebounds in two games) on the All-Tournament team was Bryant, Molina and Lee of BMCC, MayCarolyn Oyangoren of Kingsborough and Myra Molina of Hostos CC.
In the semifinals three days earlier, the Panthers knocked off their hosts, the Kingsborough Community College Wave in the first game, 42-33. In the second semifinal matchup, the Tigers cruised easily to victory over the Hostos Community College Caimans, 74-47.
Both teams will continue their season with the Region XV Championships next week.
