Colts Fall In Home Opener, 81-65
EDISON, NJ–Things finally returned to normal late last week for the Middlesex County College Blue Colts as they began their 2012-13 season after the start was delayed by the chaos created by Hurricane Sandy over three weeks ago. Â After losing its opening night game, MCC played its home opener against Bergen County College at the Physical Education Center on MCC’s main campus on Tuesday night. Â The late start to the season seemed to have the Colts on the wrong foot as they fell behind early in the first half, and could never recover.
Middlesex trailed by a score of 34-17 with 8:29 to go in the first half, and only got as close as 11 points the rest of the way while Bergen led by as many as 24 in the second half before coming away with the 81-65 victory. Â The lone bright spot for the Colts was South River graduate, Magdy Assawi, who showed in this contest that his overall game has improved significantly since high school with a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds along with several highlight reel blocks. Â MCC was without the services of the likes of former Amboy Tech and Perth Amboy HS standout, Anthony Patterson (didn’t play), and Colonia 1,000 point scorer, C.J. Gray, who is not eligible to play until January.
Also shining in a losing cause for the Colts was Connecticut native Martin Mitchell and Burlington County resident, Tremaine White.  Former Sayreville standout, Bryant Webb also had some good minutes off the MCC bench.  Bergen County College was just more efficient on offense by making more threes and scoring in transition while their bigs made life quite difficult for MCC with a number of blocked shots.  After trailing by 17 a little more than midway through the first half, the Colts tried to climb back into the game with a 13-7 run that spanned 4:06.  During the rally, Assawi scored several times underneath and in transition while knocking down a pair of free throws.  White and Mitchell also had scores while Lithuania native Paulius Mackevicius made one of two from the line.
However, Bergen wouldn’t let the Colts get any closer by taking what was then a 41-30 lead with 4:23 left in the first half, and turning it into a 73-49 advantage with 7:12 remaining thanks to a 32-19 surge. Â During the onslaught, Bergen made only two three pointers, but used its size advantage to its maximum by scoring on three putbacks, and made the most of its transition opportunities with several layups and a couple pull-up jumpers. Â Middlesex made a bit of a rumbling early on in the second half as White connected on a three pointer at the 19:20 mark, and Assawi converted a conventional three point play at the 18:23 mark to pull the Colts within 14 at 53-39.
Bergen would answer quickly though with a three pointer at the 18 minute mark that sparked a 7-2 spurt over a 2:22 span for a 60-41 lead. Â MCC again tried to climb back into the contest with a 6-2 run on 6 of 8 from the foul line that included a 3 of 4 effort by Webb and two charity shots by Assawi to pull the home team within 13 points at 60-47 with 12:07 left, but the team from Northeast Jersey put the game away with a 13-2 spurt over the next 4:55 as Webb accounted for the only Colts scoring during the stretch with a layup at the 9:34 mark for a 68-49 BCC lead. Â Perhaps Middlesex’s best run of the game came in the closing minutes.
Trailing 77-54 with 3:23 remaining, Middlesex applied some pressure to force turnovers and create transition opportunities. Â The result was a 10-0 run that included scores from Mitchell, Webb, and Mehdi Benkabbou while Assawai added two layups to pull the Colts within 13 again at 77-64 with 1:31 left. Â Unfortunately, it was too little, too late for the Colts, which dropped to 0-3 overall on the season including an 0-2 mark in the GSAC and Region XIX. Â Meanwhile, Bergen improved to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in conference with the win. Â Both teams returned to action after Thanksgiving with games on Tuesday night as MCC lost to Union County College (79-71) and Bergen lost to Brookdale (94-74).