Villa Julie jolts Chestnut Hill College men, 89-68
by TOM UTESCHER
In their last regular-season home game, you can be assured that the Chestnut
Hill College Griffins did not want to go out with a 20-point loss, but
that was their fate last Tuesday night as they suffered an 89-68 setback
at the hands off visiting Villa Julie College, a colleague in the North
East Athletic Conference.
Avenging an earlier loss to CHC on their own home court, Villa Julie’s
Mustangs climbed to a record of 11-4 in conference play and 16-7 overall
while the Griffins slipped to 9-6, 10-14. It was the second straight loss
for the locals, who had won nine of their previous 10 games.
Last Tuesday, the only time Chestnut Hill led in the contest was when
an opening lay-up for Villa Julie was answered with a three-pointer from
the left wing by Griffins guard Dwight Lyons (13 points, five rebounds
total). The visitors came back with three treys of their own as they built
up a 15-4 lead over the first seven minutes.
Chestnut Hill was never able to score more than four points in a row,
and the Griffins only did that once as they saw the Mustangs gallop away
to a 43-25 halftime advantage. Villa Julie’s Phil Williams canned
three three-point field goals in the first period and already had 17 points
in the book at the intermission. Lyons, with two three’s of his
own, led the locals at the break with eight points.
At the start of the second round, the Griffins cut their deficit to a
dozen points, 43-31, with a pair of free throws by forward Steve Tamburo
(six points), a short jumper from the lane by Isaac Greer (eight points),
and a lay-up by fellow guard Shawn Bolling (18 points, four assists, four
steals).
Over the next five minutes, however, Villa Julie put down the insurrection
with a 12-2 run. A 43-29 advantage in total rebounds helped the Mustangs
in a number of areas, particularly in their transition offense and in
second-chance point production. Their lead peaked out at 31 points (71-40)
with a little more than eight minutes left in the game.
On a two-shot CHC foul with six-and-a-half minutes to go, VJC senior
forward Anthony Fitzgerald (19 points, 14 rebounds) hit the first of his
two free throws to reach the 2000-point mark in career scoring.
The Mustangs were able to keep celebrating right up to the final horn,
when they were still 21 points ahead of their hosts. Williams wound up
with a game-high 25 points, and Steve Segears chalked up 17 points and
nine assists in the winning cause.
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