Brooklyn, NY- The CUNYAC Men's Basketball champion Medgar Evers Cougars opened their season last night in the jam packed Cougar Cave against the Rutgers-Newark Scarlet Raiders.  Before the game, the Cougars were presented with a banner to commemorate their 2010-11 CUNYAC title.  After much anticipation and excitement, the Cougars defeated the Scarlet Raiders 74-68.   

The first half was all Cougars.  Their defense and physicality led them in opening up a lead of 23 points.  Cougars guard Tony Sims was on fire from downtown early on, nailing 4 of 5 3-pointers in the first half.  Senior James Gilmore had an excellent half as well with 11 points and 3 steals.  Three point shooting was the difference in the first half as the Cougars went 6-12 and the Scarlet Raiders went only 1-14 from behind the arc.  It seemed the Cougars were well on their way to an easy victory, but, the Scarlet Raiders inched back.

Led by their forward Al'Don Muhammed, the Scarlet Raiders cut the deficit to 14 points at the end of the first half.  The second half was a battle for the Cougars.  It was a combination of stiff defense and poor shooting that allowed the Scarlet Raiders back into the game.  The Cougars only shot 33 percent from the field in the second half, and, slowly but surely, the Cougars lead shrank to ten points with just over five minutes left in the game. 

With the Cougars up by ten, the Scarlet Raiders called a timeout and were to inbound from the baseline just inside half court.  Scarlet Raiders forward Al'Don Muhammed threw a perfect lob pass to teammate Corey Bolland who jammed it to complete the booming alley-oop.  It was this play that really shifted the momentum into the visiting team's favor.

After the alley-oop, the lead kept shrinking for the Cougars and things were getting dicey.   The lead shrank all the way to 2 points with 23 seconds left on the clock.  That's when the Cougars James Gilmore iced the game with two clutch free throws to make it a two possession game with only 18 seconds remaining.  As time expired, the Cougars Cave celebrated and serenaded the visiting team as they did the whole game. 

Leading the team in scoring were James Gilmore with 19 points and Tony Sims with 18 points.  Jovan Deare contributed with a double-double scoring 10 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.   He also found his teammates a bunch picking up 8 assists in the game.  A nice performance by Winston Douglas as well as he had 9 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots.