CONTACT: R. Sean Coffey, (518) 629-7898, r.coffey@hvcc.edu
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Friday, Feb. 12, 2010
The Hudson Valley Community College men's basketball team (16-8) survived a half-court buzzer-beater attempt by Columbia-Greene Community College (8-18) and came away with a 66-64 win on Thursday, Feb. 11.
Having lost to the Twins of Columbia-Greene, 72-71 before the holiday break, Hudson Valley knew it had a battle on its hands. The Vikings came out on top after the first half, 39-35. They needed to shoot 60.7% for the half in order to take a lead into the locker room.
The second half had much of the same see-saw action as the Vikings took their largest lead of the game, 53-47, with 8:30 to play. The Twins came storming back and took a 61-58 lead after a steal and subsequent transition basket. Hudson Valley took back the lead after two Carlos Pellot-Rivera (Carmel, Carmel) field goals, 64-63. Columbia-Greene tied the contest at 64 after going one-out-of-two from the free throw line. On the next Viking possession, Ramel Alexander (Berkshire, Albany) found a baseline-cutting Matt Harte (Lansingburgh, Troy) for the go-ahead lay-up with 14 seconds left. The Twins looked as though they had a game-tying lay-up, but lost the handle out-of-bounds and were forced to foul. The Vikings missed the front-end of a one-and-one with 2.5 seconds left, enabling Columbia-Greene to rebound and chuck a half-court prayer that hit the back of the rim as time expired. The Vikings walked away relieved with the 66-64 victory.
Hudson Valley shot 51.9% in the contest, led by Alexander's 18 points on 8-13 shooting. He also added nine rebounds on the evening. Pellot-Rivera went 7-11 from the field for 17 points. Harte had a strong all-around day with eight points, seven rebounds and four assists.
The Vikings will be back at home as they play SUNY Delhi on Saturday, Feb 13. 3 p.m. tip.