Colts vs County College of Morris Titans

-Middletown, NY

Thursday Jan. 16th the SUNY Orange Colts got their lost awaited for rematch against the County College of Morris Titans, the last time these two teams faced off the was March 9th in the NJCAA Division 2 East B Men's Basketball Championship. It was the Titans who came out victorious by a score of 76-72 and after losing their first appearance against each other the Colts looked to even the score by any means necessary. Coming out of the gate the Colts found themselves trailing after the Titans were able to score the first basket of the game, with the score at 4-1 after two minutes of play the Colts responded quickly to shrink their deficit. The Titans later call the games first timeout as the score stood at 19-17 with SUNY Orange trailing, before the break both teams were scoring with ease as the score was tied four different times and unfortunately no lead changes benefiting the Colts. With 9:03 left in half No.1 the Colts gained their first lead of the game after #10 Giovanni Rupert went perfect from the free throw line to make the score 21-20 and due to their aggressiveness on defense the Colts regained possession and responded with a Kassius Paulin three pointer to put the Colts up by four. The Colts held on to their lead until the end of half number one, going into the halftime break the Colts led 53-36. 

Coming out of the break the Colts were right where they left off in the first half, as we approach the last fifteen minutes of the game the Colts sat with a comfortable 20 point lead with the score of 60-40. In the second half of the game both teams found a ton of success scoring the ball but thanks to the huge first half by the Colts their lead was not in jeopardy. In what was a highly anticipated match-up between two great teams, it was the Colts who came away victorious, snapping their two game losing streak to give them a 14-3 record through the first 17 games of the season. 

 In this game the Colts had three athletes who scored double digit points and two of the three athletes scored over 20 points in their win against the Titans

 -Top Performers

So. Guard #3 Daniel Lans led the way for the Colts in points scoring 26 points a new season high in points. Lans also had seven rebounds, three assists and four steals. Lans shot 11 for 16 going 1/2 from behind the three point line and 3-6 from the free throw line. 

So. Guard #1 Marquis Gill was the second highest scorer for the Colts scoring 23 points. This is Gill's sixth game scoring 20+ points and his fourth game in a row scoring 20+ points. Gill led the way in assists dishing out eight assists while also racking up six rebounds and two steals. Gill shot a season high from the free throw line shooting 11/12 free throws for a 91.7% free throw percentage. This is the sixth time this season where Gill finished a game with above a 90% free throw percentage.

So. Forward #24 Mathew Shea was the third highest scorer for the Colts, Shea finished with 13 points going a perfect 4/4 from the field while also going 5/9 from the free throw line. Shea also added five rebounds and three steals to his night.