Cayuga, NY - The Corning Community College men's basketball team collected their first road win of the season, Tuesday night, as they defeated the Cayuga Community College Spartans 81- 66.
The Red Baron's raced out to an early 18-2 lead and never looked back. A trio of first-year players - Colby Barnave, Sha'Mere Freeman and Antuan Darden - led the offensive implosion with a combined eight first-half, three-pointers.
Barnave (Queens, N.Y.) set the tone in the opening minutes by drilling a three-pointer - off a dish from fellow freshman guard, Sha'Mere Freeman - and then delivering a spectacular coast-to-coast layup after the 5'9 guard ripped the ball away from the arm's of 6'4 Spartan forward, Sean Pope (Rochester, NY).
The lightning quick Barnave would go on to score a career-high 12 points, while making several plays that helped the Red Baron's push the lead to 41-13, with 5:29 remaining in the first-half. Fellow freshman teammates Freeman (Rochester, N.Y.) and Darden (Binghamton, N.Y.) would chip in with 11 and 12 first-half points respectively.
However, while the trio of first-year Red Barons built up an early lead, it would be sophomore wings Damon Brumfield (Rochester, N.Y.) and Marcus Reed (Queens, NY) who helped sustain the lead by providing a combined 18 first-half points. Brumfield had a spectacular all-around game, finishing with 8 points, 7 assists, 7 steals and 3 rebounds. Reed, not to be outdone, had a career-high 19 points, which featured a pair of highlight reel alley-oop dunks off dishes from the aforementioned Freeman, and fellow reserved sophomore guard, Wilfredo Sanchez (Rochester, N.Y.).
Despite being down 53-25 in the first-half, their was no quit in the Spartans as they chipped away at the lead in the second half. Freshman guard, Donald Grant (Utica, N.Y.) canned a jumper with 36 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 79-66, but that is as close as the Cayuga men's basketball team would get as the aforementioned Freeman would ice the game with two free-throws to cap off a much-needed 81-66 victory for the Red Barons.
The Corning men's basketball team will aim to make it two-in-a-row this Saturday as they host the Onondaga Community College men's basketball team at 3 p.m. on Wayne Kenner court.