Roadrunners Race Past Leopards

MAHWAH, N.J. – Tournament most valuable player LaQuan Peterkin (Paterson, N.J.) scored 16 points, grabbed eight rebounds as Ramapo College claimed the 2009 Roadrunner Tip-Off Tournament championship with a 75-53 win over Wentworth Institute of Technology.

The visiting Leopards took a 9-4 lead with 15:24 remaining in the opening half before the Roadrunners went on a 10-0 run – with the first six points coming from sophomore guard Garret Thiel (Middletown, N.J.) – and grabbed a 14-9 lead with 12:10 left.

After sophomore guard Brendan Monteiro (Brockton, Mass.) hit a jumper with 11:56 remaining, both teams went through a dry spell, as neither team would score for nearly four and half minutes.  That would end when Peterkin scored on a putback with 7:32 left.  Wentworth trimmed the lead to one on a pair of senior forward Shane West (Saco, Maine) free throws) with 5:20 left and again when Monteiro went 2-for-2 from the charity stripe with 4:21 to play.  Junior guard Keenan Burke-Pitts (Auburn, Mass.) connected on a pair of free throws with 2:08 left in the half which gave the Leopards a 24-22 lead, but Ramapo led, 27-25 at the half.  Over the first 20 minutes, neither team above 40 percent from the floor as the Leopards were 8-for-21 (38.1 percent), while the Roadrunners were 11-for-30 (36.7 percent).

Ramapo opened the second half with a 14-3 run to take a 41-28 lead with 14:02 left in the contest and would never look back, shooting 58.8 percent from the floor while holding Wentworth to just 29.6 percent.  The Roadrunners, who scored 26 points off 24 Leopard turnovers, held a 40-34 edge on the glass and had 19 offensive caroms in which they scored 21 second-chance points.

In addition to Peterkin's 16 points, which came on 8-for-13 shooting, freshman forward Stephon Treadwell (Newark, N.J.) scored 10 points.  Sophomore guard Jonathon Salomon (Mahwah, N.J.) and senior forward Isaiah Lynch (Linden, NJ.) each scored nine points to pace Ramapo.  Lynch earned a spot on the all-tournament team.

Junior forward Sam Herrick (Duxbury, Mass.) scored 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Monteiro chipped in with 10 points.  Both were named to the all-tournament team as well.

Ramapo (3-0) is back in action on Tuesday at York College, while Wentworth (1-3) is idle until Dec. 4 when the Leopards are at Coast Guard.