BRONX, N.Y. - The Lehman men's basketball team entered Saturday's CUNYAC/Con Edison Basketball Quarterfinal against defending champion Medgar Evers knowing full well that it would have its hands full containing conference player of the year Winston Douglas.

What it couldn't imagine was that it would ultimately lose, not because of the standout junior, but because of a freshman who had played in only five games this season and who through the first 34 minutes of action had accounted for only one basket.

However, that's what transpired as Medgar Evers' Malcolm Ellis connected on three huge shots down the stretch, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 22 seconds to play, to help the Cougars defeat Lehman 63-60 and advance to Tuesday's semifinals.

Ellis' first basket of the second half, a three-pointer, came with 5:56 remaining and cut what had been Lehman's largest lead of the game, seven points, down to four, 54-50.  Jovan Deere added a bucket of his own before Sebastian Pessoa rebounded a Kelvin Gil miss and converted the second chance to push Lehman's lead back to four points.

The same pattern held true for the next several possessions with Ellis and Deere both scoring to tie the game, followed by another basket by Pessoa, this time a banker in the lane that regained the lead for Lehman.  Deere then scored on a little up-and-under in the lane to tie the game for the fifth time of the half.

Deere would finish with 24 points for Medgar Evers, 16 in the second half on 4-of-6 shooting, which was a marked improvement over his 4-of-13 performance during the game's first 20 minutes.

Following a missed free throw by Dwight Nangle on the front end of a one-and-one, Deere drove to the basket and kicked out to the right corner to Ellis, who drained the game's biggest shot to give Medgar Evers the 61-58 lead. 

Lehman's first shot at tying the game came from Ductan, who let fly on a three-pointer that was off the mark.  Nangle corralled the offensive rebound and kicked out to Raggiotto, who was fouled behind the arc while attempting to tie the game, and was sent to the free throw line for three shots.

Raggiotto was able to convert on two of his three attempts, which left the Lightning still trailing 61-60.  A quick foul by Lehman sent Deere to the line where he knocked down both.

Needing to go the length of the court with just under six seconds remaining, the Lightning inbounded the ball to Ductan, who rushed up court and got off a game-tying attempt that failed to go down.

In the loss, Ductan finished with 16 points.  The Lightning junior was especially big in the first half, connecting on three three-pointers in addition to making Deere work extremely hard on the offensive end. 

Raggiotto ended his CUNYAC All-Star campaign with a game-high 26 points and was the driving force behind Lehman's early second half run to regain the lead.

CUNYAC Player of the Year Winston Doublas was held in check by Nangle on the offensive end with 14 points, but he did add a game-high 17 rebounds for the Cougars.

Lehman's loss caps a 12-14 season that included a CUNYAC North Division crown due to its 7-5 conference record.  It also marked the final collegiate games for seniors Nangle and Patryk Odedina.