By Paul Gotham
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Monroe Community College men’s basketball team has made comebacks the norm.
Tuesday night they found a new source to lead their rally.
Izaha Jackson (Brooklyn, N.Y./West Side) drilled four straight 3-pointers as Monroe erased a double-digit deficit en route to an 83-78 victory over the Genesee Community College Cougars in WNYAC action on Monagan Court.
Jackson, who hadn’t played in the previous three games, did not enter the game until the second half. He made the most of his opportunity.
“My teammates know what I’m capable of, and they know what I do best,” Jackson said. “They kept me confident through the first half. They told me to get in there and look for my shot.”
Jackson’s trey from the top of key gave Monroe its first lead of the second half at 69-68 with 5:19 to go in the game.
“I just stayed confident and waited until my number was called,” Jackson added. “When my shot presents itself, coach always tells me to shoot it. It just so happened to go in.”
He took an inside-out feed from Elijah Tillman (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland) and drilled his second trifecta of the evening. The next time he touched the ball, Jackson connected for a 72-71 edge.
“He’s been practicing really well,” Monroe coach Jerry Burns said. “It’s been very difficult for him because he hasn’t played in the last three games. You’re talking about a kid who hasn’t played in three games, hasn’t played in the first half, and the place is mobbed. It’s a huge game. Your team is down. Kids without any character fold in a heartbeat.”
Jackson’s fourth trey gave the Tribunes a lead they never surrendered.
“In all actuality we should have had him in there in the first half, but that was a mistake I made,” Burns noted. “I told (assistant coach Demetrius Rhodes) D I’m not going to make that mistake in the second half. It was the right call at the right time.”
Devin Coleman (Bridgeport, CT/Bassick) pushed the lead to four with a 3-ball of his own with 1:28 to go in the game. The freshman guard converted four free throws in the final minutes to seal the victory.
“This win is very important,” Coleman stated. “This is our rival. This is really big. We needed this one.”
As has been the norm of late at home, the Tribunes responded after a poor showing on the defensive end in the first half.
“We’ve played three very tough home games – Niagara, Erie and Genesee,” Burns noted. “They’re a mirror of each other. Fifty points or so we’re giving up in the first half. I don’t know what it is about being at home. If it’s the big crowd. People are so pumped up? I’m not really sure. I don’t like giving up that amount of points in the first half, but we look back on it and it will say a W.”
Genesee hit 41.9 percent (13 of 31) from the floor in the first half to lead by as much as 16.
“We just got to do a better job defensively,” Burns explained. “Guys were going right by us in the first half.”
Ervin Mitchell paced a 13-3 run as the Cougars grabbed an early double-digit lead.
The sophomore guard converted a pair of free throws before following teammate Naquil Jones on the break for two. Jones hit two from the charity stripe. Mitchell connected on a pull up jumper above the free throw line. Jones hit a 3-pointer from the right corner, and Mitchell scored in transition for a 22-13 Genesee CC lead.
Joshua Doughty extended the lead to 16. Doughty hit a pair from the charity stripe, and his pull up jumper when Tarik Allicock led him on a backdoor cut made it 43-27 game.
Monroe closed the half on an 8-2 run.
Anthony Hemingway (Brooklyn, N.Y./NIA School) hit two free throws. Darwin Trotman (Brooklyn, N.Y./John Jay) grabbed a loose ball and fed Justin Vaughan (Raleigh, N.C./Body of Christ) for a trey from the left wing. Trotman’s two free throws made it a 48-39 game going into the locker room.
“They came in and jumped on us really hard,” Hemingway said. “It was just about taking pride in our defense. We were letting guys take us one on one. We practice way harder than that. We played bad defense. That was the first half. We just had to buckle down and play our style. We stopped them in the second half. We did a wonderful job.”
Monroe trimmed the deficit to two early in the second stanza. Hemingway and Vaughan hit back-to-back threes, and the GCC lead was cut to 51-49.
“Everybody took pride in our defense,” Coleman said. “And we got some stops.”
But the Cougars responded. Gabriel Burroughs hit a jumper in transition. Doughty connected on a three from the top. Mitchell finished a conventional 3-point play, and the stage was set for Jackson’s heroics.
Hemingway hit 8 of 10 free throws and finished with a team-high 16 points. Coleman added 13 and three assists. Michael Kelly Jr. (Bronx, N.Y./Fairfield Warde) chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds for the Black and Gold.
Trotman grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
The Tribunes handed out 16 assists on 25 field goals.
Jones led all scorers with 24. Mitchell added 22 and nine rebounds. Doughty chipped in 15.
Monroe’s bench outscored their counterparts, 35-13. The Tribs had a 15-6 advantage on second-chance points.
Monroe rallied from 17 down to defeat Erie CC on January 27. Genesee led by as many as eight before Hemingway hit a jumper with two seconds remaining to complete the comeback last month. Niagara County CC held a nine-point advantage midway through the first half before the Tribs rebounded for a 92-90 win on January 22.
The game was part of the Coaches vs. Cancer series. More than $1,000 was raised during the evening.
MCC (18-4/7-0) travels to play at Jamestown CC next Tuesday.
Genesee (16-7/4-4) hosts Mercyhurst NE on Saturday.
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