by Tom Utescher

Last week the men’s and women’s basketball teams wrapped up a 2013-14 season that neither squad will be unhappy to put behind them.

Although both squads played tough against some strong opponents, they finished under .500 overall, the men at 10-17, and the women at 8-18.

Despite their disappointing final record, the men’s team was in contention most nights, with 11 of their 17 losses coming by 10 points or less. They went 9-9 in their last eight games after getting off to a slow start.

Guard Taylor Trevisan, a 6’4” graduate student with playing eligibility, led the Griffins in both scoring (14.5 ppg) and rebounding (6.3), while recording 44 assists and 44 steals. Senior guard Jakeem Bogans and junior center Seamus Radtke each contributed 10 points per game to the cause. Radtke pulled in 5.4 rebounds per game and led the ballblub in blocked shots, with 36.

Bogans, who was a member of the last graduating class at Cardinal Dougherty High School, led the Griffins in shooting percentage from both the free throw line (81.1) and from the three-point loop (42.4). Fellow guard Christian Walck, a junior who grew stronger as the season progressed, turned in an all-round effort that included 9.5 points and four rebounds per game. He was far-and-away the team leader in assists, with 80, and he also led the ballclub in steals, with 47.

In spite of an 8-11 regular-season record within the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, the Chestnut Hill men were able to qualify for the conference playoffs for a sixth straight year. The fourth seeded out of the Southern Division, they lost a first-round game last Saturday, 84-62 to New Jersey’s Bloomfield College, the regular-season champ in the Northern Division.

Four nights earlier, both the CHC men and women lost their final regular-season games in a doubleheader at Holy Family University. This was the end of the line for the ladies, whose 6-13 conference record left them out of the tournament field.

Like the men, the Griffin women weren’t often the victim of blow-outs.

Overall, their record included eight losses where the margin of defeat was 10 points or less, and there were several other contests in which the Griffins were separated from the victors by just a few points more than that.

In the win/loss column, the real killer was a 1-9 start to the season; from that point on, the team was only a tad under .500, at 7-9. In a home court encounter with perennial Division II power Holy Family, Chestnut Hill was just six points behind with 90 seconds to go, then the Tigers added five late points on free throws.

Sometimes, the Griffins looked like two different teams before and after halftime on the same night, as when they trailed by only three points at halftime in their rematch with conference leader Philly U., then came apart in the second period to lose 85-59.

The Griffins graduate just two players, both forwards, but Annie Farrow and Aimee Bouie both enjoyed strong senior seasons and will be missed down in the paint. Farrow was third in scoring average (9.2 ppg) and led the team in rebounding, with an average of 8.5. Bouie gave the Griffins 5.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, while accumulating a team-high 54 blocked shots.

CHC will return a solid group of guards, including perimeter shooter Olivia Gorczynski, a junior who led the team in scoring (13.8 ppg), free throw percentage (82.4), and total steals (41). Versatile junior Tenisha Townsend-Mobley was second on the team in scoring (9.7 ppg), while collecting 5.5 rebounds per game and recording a total of 38 assists and 29 steals.

The team’s assist leader, with 46, was sophomore Brittany McDonough (5.5 ppg), and right behind, with 45, was junior Shayla Felder (8.2 ppg). The incoming class of Griffins will include a point guard out of Abington Friends School, Bianca Adams.