Men's basketball: No. 7 Orange hands No. 1 Sullivan first loss
LOCH SHELDRAKE – As he departed Paul Gerry Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, Romeo Aquino looked like he had been in a boxing match. He moved a little slower and had cotton stuffed in his nostrils. He insisted he was okay, though maybe the not-so-proud owner of a broken nose.
Not too long earlier, Aquino lay dazed on the floor under one of the baskets. He felt no need to bounce up after taking an elbow to the face and he was guided off the court, a bit unsteady, holding a towel to stem the blood.
It was a heavyweight bout, a rare regular-season matchup between two unbeaten, top-10 junior college basketball powers. The game took on more significance with the revelation that SUNY Sullivan was just named the No. 1 team in the nation a day earlier, for the first time in the NJCAA Division II ranks, but SUNY Orange was undaunted.
The actual first blow of the day came around noon when Sullivan coach Brent Wilson was informed six of his reserves had been diagnosed with COVID and would sit out. The hope, at that moment, was the Generals would still match up well with the visiting Colts, and for 30 minutes that was the case.
But Orange stayed the course from an early onslaught – down 13-2 after only three minutes – and eventually wore down Sullivan. The Colts went on a late 16-3 run to seize a 12-point lead and the Generals drew no closer than five over the final four minutes. No. 7 Orange (8-0) prevailed 85-80 to win round one of what could be four meetings this season, and Sullivan (8-1) is sure to fall out of the top spot when the new rankings come out on Monday.
“It's a good win any time you can come up here and beat the number one team in the country,’’ said Orange coach Tom Rickard. He believes it is the first time Orange has dispatched a No. 1-ranked Sullivan team, a position the Generals held often at the Division III level.
“We usually have three, four, five of those (scoring) runs and we only had one of them tonight so that run won the game for us,’’ Rickard said.
Washingtonville graduate Aquino, though worse for wear, was proud of the Orange effort. He, along with teammate and O’Neill grad Darius Boben, scored 21 points to lead the Colts, even though Aquino sat out the final five minutes, reduced to shouting encouragement and instructions from the bench. Pine Bush grad Tim Linton had three putbacks and scored 11 of his 17 points over the final 11 minutes. Middletown grad Keon Gill finished with 13.
“This means a lot for us,’’ Aquino said. “We practice every day, we put in the work. We want to play the best competition. We played the number one team in the country and we knocked them off so we feel pretty good about that.’’
Aquino is averaging 22.6 per game and Boben 17.9. Rickard said Boben had perhaps his worst first half of the season and challenged him to pick up his game.
It was not pretty, by any means. Orange was held under 50 percent shooting for the third time (49.2 percent), posted a season-low 43 rebounds and turned the ball over 24 times. The 85 points was a season-low, coming off three recent games of 123 vs. Ulster, 122 vs. Rockland and 97 vs. Monroe-Bronx.
Jay Alvarez, from Waynesboro, Pa., again led the Generals' charge with 23 points. Albany product Jair Currie hit six 3-pointers for 18. Brooklyn’s Kipp Richvine scored 13 and Cam Gallon 11 – his half-court bank shot at the buzzer kept alive Sullivan’s streak of scoring at least 80 in each game.
“We were very poor defensively in the second half,’’ said Wilson, whose team gave up a season-high 48 points after halftime. “We didn’t defend, they hit some big shots and made big plays at the right time.’’
Wilson said consideration will be given to postpone Thursday’s road game with Rockland. He said there was thought to postponing the Orange contest but there were a handful of NCAA scouts on hand.
“I just thought our lack of depth tonight caught up with us,’’ Wilson said.
The teams will meet again Feb. 9 in Middletown. Orange will host the Region XV tournament on Feb. 25-26. The region is hosting the district East championships so two Region XV bids are assured for nationals.
Orange could move up in next week’s poll, and Rickard believes his team is good enough to be tops in the nation.
“If we keep doing what we do and we keep working hard and focusing on defense, absolutely we could be number one,’’ he said. “There's no doubt about it.’’
Twitter: @KenMcMillanTHR
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: SUNY Orange Sullivan NJCAA Division II unbeatens men's basketball
