Photo by Curtis Ashley
BY SIDNEY CORNIFFSports writer CCNY's Women's Basketball team hasn't beaten the CSI Dolphins in twenty years. But at home on Tuesday night, they were able to snap the two decade long losing skid in a close 69-67 game that came down to the wire.City started out roaring strong, going up 7-0 in the first few minutes of the game. However, after turning the ball over 21 times in the first half, the lady Dolphins were able to mount a quick comeback by halftime."We we're falling into that trap" assistant coach Jeff Attard said about the aggressive defense CSI played. They smothered the Lady Beavers and were able to create 29 points off turnovers.By halftime the score was 31-28 in favor of CCNY.Although all their focus was on competing with CSI, the lady Beavers didn't forget about their last game. A heartbreaking loss in overtime against Lehman 80-83.With the last game lingering in the back of their minds they began to turn up the heat on CSI in the second half and erupted in the fourth quarter to take a 67-57 lead."We played with the anger we had after the Lehman game and took it out on the CSI team," forward Tiara Brown said.Brown racked up her 15th double-double of the season with 14 points and 16 rebounds.Her teammate Erika Richards led with a game high 22 points, a bucket away from her career-high of 24.Not throwing in the towel yet, CSI went on a 10-0 scoring binge late in the fourth. Turning the game into a dead even 67-67 tie. CSI doubled CCNY's 16 points in the paint for the game with 32.But thanks to a mid-range jumper with 12.4 seconds left on the clock, City able to survive and get away with the victory. Desperately coming away with a win in their second to last home game of the season."It was like getting a monkey off our backs," Attard added.The win ended a 27-game losing streak to the Dolphins dating back to 1997.Now with the playoffs slowly approaching CCNY could potentially seed third or fourth in the tournament and guarantee themselves a home game."If we could win the next three out of four I would be ecstatic" head coach Jamie Angeli mentioned "Obviously we'll try and win them all, but I think three out of four would put us in great shape".Angeli has been very cautions of minutes’ restrictions; resting his players, and trying to use his bench more in order to be prepared for this final stretch of basketball.Up next for CCNY is 10-9 Baruch at Arc Arena. They won their last game against them 59-56. Defeating Baruch this time around would even both team’s records in conference play at 9-4. Tying them for fourth in the CUNYAC.