PLATTSBURGH — Clinton hung with a tough Herkimer squad for one half.
Then the second half began.
The Generals scored 10 of the first 12 second half points to put distance that the Cougars could never close in a 93-63 defeat, Friday.
It marked Clinton’s second straight home loss and sits them a 4-4 overall and 2-4 in league play.
“When you’re getting killed by almost 30 points and nothing’s going our way, it’s time to see what you’re made of,” Cougar head coach Neil Epstein said. “Maybe we think we’re a little bit better than we are at this point of the year.
“We got a reality check that we’re not as good as we thought we were. We have the Thanksgiving break come up and then three more to end the semester. Hopefully we can come out and finish the semester strong.”
After the break, Clinton travels to face SUNY Canton (JV) on Dec 3, before returning for two games in the friendly confines against Genesee CC and Corning CC on Dec 6 and 7, respectively.
The break for the holidays in December will ideally leave a better taste in the mouth for the Cougars as they struggled at times to keep up with Herkimer.
“The game plan was not to give them live ball turnovers, and we gave them too many of those,” Epstein said. “We knew that Herkimer rebounds the ball extremely well and we didn’t rebound the wall very well today.
“We got killed on the offensive glass. They’re really good, especially in the transition and they’re having offensive rebounds. They got whatever they wanted.”
But, while the second half got away from Clinton, the team didn’t show signs of giving up as they fought until the bitter end.
If anything they were showing signs of frustration as shots didn’t fall and the game increasingly grew out of hand. Players still supported each other and did what they could still fight to make it a game as it slipped away.
Malike Alassani led Clinton with 11 points scored, backed his game high 18 points scored from Wednesday’s loss against Hudson Valley.
Elijah Carroll was the only other Cougar to reach double digits with 10.
Epstein praised his team’s resilience.
“We were down 10 at halftime,” he said. “We spoke and wanted to keep that momentum and get back in the game. We fought hard and it just didn’t go our way.
“That’s the nature of the game. It wasn’t our night.”
Now the Cougars get some time to rest and reset a bit before they close out the semester with three games next week.
“I think we have to end on a positive note, you know, close out ‘24 on a strong note,” Epstein said. “We have two big conference games at the beginning of December that we have to have.
“I think we need to kind of reset, kind of be away from basketball for a little bit. That way we can come back and finish the semester out the way we want.”
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Herkimer 93, Clinton 63
Herkimer (93)
Oladitan 8-0-13, Smith 2-0-4, Norris 2-0-4, Burnett 5-0-8, Yisrael 3-2-8, Kilian 1-0-2, Coleman 1-0-2, Freeman 5-6-16. Ba 3-0-5, McGhee 5-0-9, Thomas 10-1-20. Cardona 1-0-2. TOTALS: 46-9-93.
Clinton (63)
Hill 4-2-9, Brown 2-0-6, Weeks III 3-2-8, Hunter 3-1-6, Alassani 6-0-11, Carroll 5-1-10. Dueno 2-0-6, C. Williams 0-2-2, J. Williams 2-0-5. TOTALS: 31-8-63
Halftime- Herkimer, 40-30
3 point goals- Herk (8) Oladitan 3, Burnett 2, Ba, McGhee, Thomas. CCC (9) Brown 2, Hill, Hunter, Alassani, Carroll, Dueno 2, Williams