Viewed from afar, the absence of Louvinia Hayes and Jaleesa Gordon over the Lightning's last several games could be seen as a detriment to the team's goal of a CUNYAC championship.

A closer look, however, and it becomes evident that missing those two key players might actually turn out to be a good thing in the long run.

That's because Coach Eric Harrison has seen his other backcourt star, Amanda De La Cruz, develop a takeover mentality that often was the domain of Hayes late in games. Since her departure due to injury, De La Cruz has been on a scoring spree dropping 28 on Medgar Evers, 28 on Brooklyn and on Saturday against visiting York, a 31-point performance in the Lightning's 68-61 win.

In addition, several players who had been secondary contributors have stepped in and played capably in Hayes and Gordon's absence. Against York, every player on the Lightning roster saw action and earned her place in the scorebook.

Those contributions came at key moments as well.

With the Lighting trailing 18-13 following Shayna Smith's layup with 8:48 to go in the first half, Lehman manufactured a 19-6 run that turned its deficit into a 32-24 halftime advantage. During the stretch, 13 of the 19 points were scored by Paula Robinson, who knocked down two big three-pointers and a layup, Chris Mary Martinez and Taniefa Taylor.

To start the second half it was De La Cruz who put her initial stamp on the game. She scored seven of the Lightning's first 13 points as Lehman built a 15-point lead, 45-30, with 14:44 remaining. Two free throws by York's Smith pulled the Cardinals to within 46-40, but Lashay Bentley, Maquasia Campbell, and Martinez came through in a big way with each adding a bucket to push the lead back to 12.

The Cardinals whittled the lead down to 57-53 with 4:17 remaining which is when De La Cruz took over. The junior guard capped her 31 point afternoon by scoring the final 11 points of the game for the Lightning to close things out.

Aside from De La Cruz's scoring bonanza, Martinez scored a season-high 13 points, Robinson finished with 10 and Taylor continued to crash the boards with abandon to finish with 13 rebounds, seven on the offensive glass.  In only seven minutes of action, Frances Brochero notched two points and five rebounds.

Lehman now sits at 4-3 in the crowded CUNYAC North Division with a rematch against 7-0 Baruch next up at the Prudential Center on Monday afternoon.