The College’s men’s basketball team dropped two more games this past week, but there was a bright spot as senior forward Steve Siracusa passed the 500 rebound mark for his career in the team’s loss against Montclair State University.
“Steve is the ultimate team player and a relentless worker,” head coach Kelly Williams said. “He is six foot three and battles every night with guys four or five inches taller and by the end of the night he out-rebounds them.”
The most impressive part of Siracusa’s rebounding mark is that he accomplished it in only three seasons playing basketball for the College. By topping 500 rebounds he became only the seventh player in the history of the College to do so.
“(Siracusa) has accomplished over 500 rebounds in only three years, that is really special and it is something that he and his family will always remember,” Williams said. “I am blessed to have the opportunity to be able to coach Steve over the last three years, and he has earned every one of his 500-plus rebounds. He is truly a great person and a special player.”
However, despite Siracusa’s record-breaking week, the team dropped both of their games, first against Montclair State University 74-57 on Saturday and then against Division I Princeton University 73-40 on Sunday.
“In both cases we played extremely hard,” Williams said. “But in the second half of both games, we didn’t shoot well, and the size along with strength of both teams on the glass became too much for us to overcome.”
Unfortunately for the Lions, rebounding has been their weak point this season as the team was out-rebounded by a combined mark of 74-43 in the games against Montclair and Princeton.
“The teams that we have played have a size advantage over us, so that has contributed to us being out-rebounded,” Williams said. “We have to box out harder and track down some of the long rebounds when we have the opportunity.”
Sophomore guard Donovan Smalls went back to leading the team in scoring on a game-to-game basis this week.
Smalls scored 15 points in the loss against Montclair and 13 in the loss against Princeton.
The team will now have two NJAC games this week, first traveling to Rowan University today and then facing NJAC-leading Ramapo Universiy on Friday.
