By Dylan Butler
With his team leading 61-48 in the second half, Queens College sophomore guard Gary DeBerry knew the Knights’ game against New York Institute of Technology would eventually come down to free throws.
He just didn’t think it would come so soon.
From the 8:08 mark of the second half, that’s all Queens did — shoot free throws. The Knights went to the line 20 times, canning 19 free throws to defeat Tech, 82-65, in a key New York Collegiate Athletic Conference game Saturday night at Fitzgerald Gymnasium.
“That’s how you pull off the game,” said DeBerry, who had 20 points, four rebounds and two assists for the Knights. “Usually when we take 20 free throws, we make 10 to 15 of them. I’m glad we held the lead down the stretch.”
The win was the Knights’ sixth in seven games and more than made up for last Monday’s 79-75 loss to Concordia and avenged an 82-77 loss at NYIT Dec. 13. It also gave Queens sole possession of third place in the NYCAC.
“This was a big win for us because we got one back from a team that beat us earlier,” said Queens College head coach Kyrk Peponakis. “They were right there, but we made sure we got to the line and did some good.”
Defensively, Queens (11-7, 9-5) did a good job on 6-foot-7 senior forward Jared Bird. After scoring 11 of the Bears’ first 17 points in the opening 12 minutes in the low blocks, post players Will Hooks, Jurrell Bonaparte, Anthony Washington and Alex McLean denied Bird the ball. Bird finished with 17 points but had only one more basket from the field.
“Both of their big men hurt us bad the last game,” said Washington, who posted his third straight game scoring more than 20 points with a game-high 24. “We came out and played [Bird] aggressively. We went to work on him and I guess we wore him down.”
The Knights opened up a 3-0 lead on Hooks’ three-point play and closed the first half with a bucket from the right blocks to take a 37-26 halftime lead as Queens never trailed.
The Knights extended their 11-point advantage to 16, 44-28 in the opening moments of the second half before New York Tech (11-7, 7-7) went on a 9-0 run capped by a Jermaine Hollman three from the right wing to cut Queens’ lead to 44-37 with 14:59 left in the second half.
With all the momentum in the Bears’ corner, DeBerry nailed a key three-pointer after a timeout to extend the Knights’ lead back to 10.
New York Tech got within nine on a Karim Mebarki bucket from the right blocks, but the Knights again went on a run, this time a 7-1 one to go back ahead, 61-46, before the free throw extravaganza began. Queens finished the game knocking down 92.3 percent (24-for-26) from the line.
“We’re sketchy from the free throw line,” Washington said. “We usually don’t do that well, even in practice. But things have been going well for us and tonight we just knocked them down.”
The Knights exploited Tech’s zone defense, shooting 50 percent (25-for-50) from the field, while Queens held the Bears to just 35.7 percent (20-for-56) from the field. The Knights, led by Washington’s eight boards, outrebounded NYIT 36-32.
“The effort is starting to get better — they are starting to realize what it takes,” Peponakis said. “I’m happy because we’re getting production from everyone who is playing. The goal now is to keep putting them together.”
After hosting Bridgeport (4-13, 4-9) in a game scheduled for Wednesday and a road game at Mercy (7-7, 6-6) Saturday, the Knights host C.W. Post (10-8, 8-6) Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Queens 70, Southampton 67. Washington had 21 points and Steve Sikiric added 16 as the Knights completed a sweep of their season series with Southampton last Wednesday. Junior point guard Phil Lyons also had 12 points and a season-high seven assists.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
