C-GCC men, women win Goldberg Classic
GREENPORT -- Matt Smith scored eight of his 17 points in overtime as Columbia-Greene came came from behind to defeat Orange County Community College, 101-96, to win the Goldberg Classic championship on Saturday.
The Columbia-Greene women also won the tournament title with a 70-45 victory over Nassau Community College.
MEN
After taking an early lead, Columbia-Greene fell behind mid way through the first half and trailed by six at halftime, 41-35. The deficit grew to as much as 11 in the second half before the Twins rallied.
Jamie Nurse's jumper with 2:45 to go in regulation gave Columbia-Greene its first lead of the second half, 81-80. With 11 seconds left and the scored tied at 86-86, the Twins had possession and a chance to win in regulation, but a steal by Orange's Kelvin Addae with :01.3 remaining sent the game to overtime.
Columbia-Greene's depth played a key role in the victory as it was clear in the overtime period the Twins had the fresher legs. Smith's basket :30 in, followed by a three from Donavan Williams gave the Twins a 91-86 advantage. Orange eventually drew even at 93-93, but a cold-blooded three by Smith put the Twins in front for good with 1:15 left in the extra session.
Smith went on to add another bucket and three free throws to seal the deal.
The Twins has six players reach double digits in scoring, led by Jordan Wright's 18 points. Smith and Nurse each had 17, Jacorey Nixon 12 and Williams and Jahrice Ballard 10 apiece.
Josh Mitchell paced Orange with 22 points. Bobby Olson, the Colts' 6-7 center, had 18 before fouling out with 4:45 left in regulation.
"It's a collective effort every single time," Columbia-Greene coach Brian Smith said. "Friday night, Jamie Nurse didn't give us a lot, but today's he's the MVP and he won the game for us. Sometimes I have to push him and sometimes I let him sit until he earns his time and this was his time. He produced and he showed that he could be a high level player."
Nurse was named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player, while Nixon was named to the All-Tournament team along with Jason Anderson of Word of Life, Raekwon Hubbard of Springfield Tech and Josh Mitchell of Orange.
Smith couldn't have been more pleased with his team for winning it's first overtime game of the year after the going 0-6 in overtime games a year ago.
"This group just keeps grinding," Smith said. "Friday night it was Jahrice coming off the bench to spark us with 22 and now today Jamie Nurse comes off the bench and was a spark. Any guy can do anything at any given point. You can see on the bench, everybody was cheering for their teammates. Some of the starters weren't in at that point and it was the other guys doing the dirty work, but at the end of the day everybody hugged each other, we won the game and that's all that matters."
Columbia-Greene (2-1) returns to action on Tuesday with a home game against Sullivan Community College at 7 p.m.
ORANGE (96): Block 3-1-10, Davis 4-4-16, Mitchell 5-9-22, Addae 3-2-9, Gonzalez 2-1-5, Feldman 6-0-12, Olsen 7-4-18, Dixon -0-4. Totals 32-21-96.
3-point goals: Davis 4, Block 3, Mitchell 3 Addae 1.
C-GCC (101): Wright 6-5-18, Smith 6-4-17, Bryant 2-0-5, Afful 2-4-8, Henry 2-0-4, Nixon 4-4-12, Williams 4-0-10, Ballard 3-4-10, Nurse 7-1-17. Totals 36-22-10.
3-pointers: Nurse 2, Williams 2, Bryant 1, Smith 1, Wright 1.
WOMEN
Columbia-Greene jumped out to a 20-4 lead after one quarter of play and coasted to the tournament championship.
The Twins were up 32-17 at halftime and 57-27 through three quarters.
Freshman Anyla Harper led the Twins with 15 points. Tanisha Edge had 14, Shayna Ostrowsky 11 and Stacey Cherestal 10.
Columbia-Greene coach Jayme Bates was proud of his team's performance over the two-day tournament.
"We didn't know exactly what the competition was going to be, but it ended up being a good second game and we played well as a group, which is an important thing," Bates said. "We limited our turnovers, compared to when we played Mohawk, so I'm excited about that.
"We're playing well as a team, we're developing as a team and that's very important. We still have a lot to work on, every day in practice the girls keep coming and are committed to getting better and I'm excited about the future."
Edge, who scored a total of 58 points in the two games, was named Tournament Most Valuable Player. Shayna Ostrowsky was an All-Tournament selection along with Nicky Jimenez of World of Life, Jamie Staples of Springfield Tech and Victoria Mercado of Nassau.
"I think as the year goes on Tanisha will continue to stand out," Bates said. "When her shot is on it's really tough to stop her. I'm happy for her because she beat her own career-high for points in a game (44 vs. World of Life) and she still played very unselfishly, she also had nine assists. The important thing is that she continues to be a team player.
"Shayna did really well, too. She had a 16-point game and an 11-point game, which is awesome for her. It's nice to have two hometown players do so well. It's great for the program and I'm excited about what she brings energy-wise to every practice."
The Columbia-Greene women (2-1) play host to Sullivan Community College on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
NASSAU (45): Wynter 0-2-2, Mercado 5-11-21, Capobiano 1-3-5, Ellis 3-2-8, McCann 2-0-4, Best 2-0-4. Totals 13-18-45.
3-point goals: Capobianco 1.
CGCC (70): Edge 4-2-14, Cherestal 5-0-10, Ostrowsky 5-0-11, Harper 6--1-15, Jones 2-0-4, Furtado 1-0-2, Popp 0-1-1, Albright 3-0-7, Brazela 1-2-4, Weinschreider 1-0-2. Totals 28-6-70.
3-point goals: Edge 4, Harper 2, Ostrowsky 1, Albright 1.
