By Paul Gotham
ROCHESTER, N.Y. There was no dramatic second-half rally. This one was a wire-to-wire performance.
Justin Vaughan (Raleigh, N.C./Body of Christ) netted a career-high 20 as the Monroe Community College Tribunes easily defeated the Herkimer College Generals, 73-56 in non-conference action on Monagan Court, Tuesday.
Vaughan came off the bench and hit 5 of 7 behind the arc in the first half leading Monroe to a 19-point advantage going into the locker room.
“My teammates just kept finding me and encouraged me to keep shooting,” Vaughan said. “I was just feeling it.”
Vaughan led a 22-3 run as Monroe pulled away midway through the first half. The 6-2 guard drilled his first of five three-pointers in the opening stanza when Devin Coleman (Bridgeport, CT/Bassick) found him open in the left corner.
“This was not his first big game,” Coleman said of his teammate. “We already knew what he could do.”
Darwin Trotman (Brooklyn, N.Y./John Jay) gave Monroe its first double-digit advantage of the game at 22-11 when he finished a layup in traffic. The 6-3 guard found Vaughan on the next possession for another 3-ball.
“Every time it’s a zone coach encourages me to sit low and shoot the ball,” Vaughan continued. “Whenever I shoot, he says it’s a good shot.”
Herkimer called a timeout, but it didn’t matter.
Coleman found Vaughan ahead of the defense for a layup. Davon Jackson (Odenton, MD/Old Mill) used a spin move on the block for two.
Vaughan scored Monroe’s next nine, and the Tribunes had a 35-12 lead.
“The crazy thing is yesterday I had a good practice, so today I felt it was going to carry over,” Vaughan noted. “When it (the basket) looks so big you just want to keep getting it (the ball) until you miss.”
Monroe won the tap, scored the game’s first points and attacked the paint to jump to an early lead.
Elijah Tillman (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland) and Anthony Hemingway (Brooklyn, N.Y./ NIA School) both converted pairs of free throws before Coleman hit a pull-up jumper from the free throw line. Coleman fed Michael Kelly Jr. (Bronx, N.Y./Fairfield Warde) in the lane for a bucket.
“In the first half, the ball was moving,” Monroe head coach Jerry Burns said. “We’re making shots. For us, all year we’ve struggled the first half.”
Hemingway found Tillman underneath for a basket. Then Tillman grabbed a loose ball in the lane and scored. Kelly Jr. connected on a jump hook in the paint, and on the next possession Kelly grabbed his own miss and scored.
Monroe led 16-9.
“If you went in and looked at our board, the keys to winning were attack inside-out,” Burns explained. “That was the start. It’s not only passing the ball in there. It’s dribble penetration, and we did that.”
Tillman played 18 minutes and scored eight on three-of four shooting. The 6-9 center grabbed four rebounds and had one block.
“We can get outside shots any time,” Tillman said. “We just wanted to come out strong and attack inside.”
The strong start might have been the result of a change in game day routine.
“We tried something a little bit different today,” Burns said. “We had a shootaround from 12 to one. It kinda got everybody up and going. I think that helped us. We’re going to do the same thing on Thursday.”
“Usually we come out slow, but tonight we were ready,” Tillman stated. “We have become a second half team. We were doing all right in the first half, but we have to fight back. Today, we talked in shootaround about how we wanted to come out strong and continue to play 40 minutes.”
Vaughan hit his fifth three of the first 20 when Izaha Jackson (Brooklyn, N.Y./West Side) found him on the break for a catch-and-shoot trey.
Monroe took a 45-26 at halftime.
Herkimer scored eight straight early in the second half. Dantre Langhorne (Greenport, N.Y./Greenport) and Carson Murphy (Mohawk, N.Y./Mohawk) both converted one of two free throws. Jamell Johnson (Rochester, N.Y./C.G. Finney) and Jallah Tarver (Schenectady, N.Y./Schenectady) both hit from behind the arc.
Herkimer trailed 50-34.
The Generals came in with a 13-game winning streak including a 25-point drubbing of Genesee Community College on February 1.
“They have a good team,” Burns noted. “I just don’t think they played particularly well tonight. We played well, so it was a bad combination for them.”
Vaughan’s previous game high 18 which he accomplished January 13 in a win over Jamestown Community College-Cattaraugus County.
“Some of those shots Justin got, “Ant” was able to get dribble penetration and kick,” Burns said. “We had a couple of wide open threes.”
Hemingway finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Tribunes.
Trotman grabbed a team-high eight rebounds as the Black and Gold took a 50-43 advantage on the boards.
Coleman added 11 points and a game-high six assists. The Tribunes handed out 16 helpers on 25 field goals.
Johnson and Langhorne both had 12 points for Herkimer. Ken Woodard (Bronx, N.Y./Uniondale) chipped in 10. Tarver pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.
Monroe held Herkimer to 19 of 63 (30.2 percent) from the floor.
Monroe’s bench outscored their counterparts 23-3.
Monroe scored 17 points off turnovers to Herkimer’s 10.
The Generals had an 8-7 edge in second-chance points.
The Tribunes have had several come-from-behind victories over the last month including double-digit comebacks against Erie CC and Genesee CC.
The win was the 11th straight for Monroe (22-4/10-0) which returns to conference play on Thursday at Erie Community College.
“It’s the same mission.,” Coleman said. “Take care of business.”
Herkimer hosts Schenectady County Community College, tomorrow.
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