Men’s basketball falls to Fulton-Montgomery
X-Avier Miller, Staff Writer
The men’s basketball team lost 80-83 to Fulton-Montgomery in their last home game of the season on Friday, Feb. 19.
“[I’m] very disappointed, but I was proud of the effort my guys put out,” said Head Coach Mike Long.
“[FMCC] is a very good team. We fell behind and they [were] pressured,” said Long.
Fulton-Montgomery won against Herkimer who is one of the top teams in the league.
Sophomore guard Jose Reyes led the team with 18 points.
Guard Nate Monson added 14 and center David Suski added rebounds in the post. Matt Walker returned from the bench in the second quarter, adding 11 points to the overall score.
The coaches recognized some errors that can be improved for their final season game.
“If we made some free throws [and] finished some lay ups, those are key in a game and [we] just didn’t come up with that,” said Long.
“I felt disappointed but good at the same time,” said Long. ” I feel like we have some momentum going into Delhi on Saturday.”
Long gave his opinion about the teams positioning for subregionals.
“I don’t know how it’s going to work out yet,” Long said. “We are right on the line of making it to sub regionals or not. Saturday’s game will decide.
Long feels his year experience at Hudson Valley so far has been very positive.
“I like the team we have. We have a pretty good group of guys like I said today I think our guys on and off the bench are tremendous,” said Long.
As Long’s first year coaching at HVCC comes to an end, he reflects on his previous coaching experiences.
“I have been coaching junior college for 17 years now so coaching HVCC’s team wasn’t anything I was unprepared for,” said Long. “I’ve coached at four year colleges such as Saint Rose and Siena. I’ve helped coach high school levels, and out of all the levels, junior college by far is the toughest.”
Long commented on the community and supporters of Hudson Valley’s sports.
“I think the energy was great today,” said Long. “I don’t know where the energy comes from but there’s always a lot of spectators cheering for us.
“Sports teams at HVCC come out and support the other teams. I think that’s a very good mark of this school, being a commuter school that could be tough to generate. You could see that in tonight’s game.” Long said.
The team travelled to Delhi on Saturday, Feb. 22, where they went down 92-78. Sub regionals will start on Tuesday, Feb. 25.