By Dylan Butler
It was fine when he was a scrawny freshman and sophomore, when he'd get flung around like a rag doll on drives to the lane. But when the Maspeth native is eighth in the country in scoring, it's probably wise not to give him any extra ammunition. Wierzbicki responded the best way he know how – by scoring 30 points for the Queens College men's basketball team in a 76-60 rout of Mercy College in a game played at Westchester Community College last Thursday. “There's a few places, like in Bridgeport, they love me over there, but first they were calling me names,” Wierzbicki said. “I was laughing a little bit. It wasn't anything terrible, they weren't cursing out my mother or anything.”Wierzbicki, the reigning East Coast Conference Player of the Year, is averaging a league-best 24.6 points per game and scored 30 points for the fourth time this season.The small, but spirited crowd were on Wierzbicki from the start but it was Queens (9-8. 6-4 ECC) that jumped on Mercy right away, leading 13-2 seven minutes into the first half. A Wierzbicki three doubled up Mercy, 28-14 with 6:54 left in a half that saw Queens shoot a sizzling 60 percent from the field. But the Flyers cut its deficit to 41-32 at the break thanks to a buzzer-beating layup by former St. Francis Prep standout Mike Marin, who finished with four points in 10 minutes. Keiron Guy scored the first basket of the second half for Mercy (5-12, 4-6), but Queens crashed the glass and went on a 10-0 run, capped by a Lance Hazel three-pointer, to extend its lead to 54-38. The Knights led by 20, 66-46 with 7:28 left and it appeared the rout was on. But Mercy sliced its deficit in half in less than three minutes. “We've got to make sure we keep teams down once we get them there,” said Hazel, who had 17 points and 14 rebounds. “We can't let them come back and try to make a run because this is their gym.” Hassan Washington had 9 points and 8 assists, missing the final four minutes of the game because of a cut over his left eye. Victor Sidberry led Mercy with 15 points, Devon Mirjah had 14 and Vince Jordan added 10.With the win, Queens moved into a tie with St. Thomas Aquinas for third place in the ECC. “I'm watching us, we're starting to do some really good things,” Queens coach Kyrk Peponakis said.
