The College of Staten Island men’s basketball team matched their all-time longest win streak tonight, winning for the 14th-straight time to improve to 21-4 overall by beating St. Joseph’s College (Brooklyn), 76-54. The Bears fell to 12-13 overall as the Dolphins broke open a tight first half to gain the win.
SJC held the early advantage, as Justin Gist’s basket at 16:13 of the first half gave the home team an 8-2 lead. CSI would cut the lead continuously in the first frame, but each time the Bears had an answer, keeping the Dolphins at bay. That is until three Jordan Young lay-ups inside of three minutes to go in the first half capped an 8-0 run by the Dolphins to stake CSI to its first lead, 27-24, at 2:14. The teams traded baskets to close the first half at 29-26.
A David Louison basket for SJC knotted the score at 32-32 in the second half, but from there, CSI seemed to finally hit their stride, reeling off a 14-2 run over the next five minutes, bookended by a Bloochy Magloire three and consecutive baskets by Javon Cox. After the Bears whitted CSI’s 12-point lead down to five, CSI used another 11-0 run to take a 57-41 lead at 9:29, earning a stranglehold on the game.
From there, SJC could only cut the lead to 15, as CSI used it’s 53.3% shooting in the second stanza to improve on the lead, ending in the 22-point win.
CSI was led by Young’s 28 points, as the senior added seven rebounds. TJ Tibbs added 12 points and seven assists. SJC, out-rebounded 50-37 in the game, got a game-high 18 points from Gist.
CSI will now remain idle until Saturday, February 18, when they host John Jay College at 1pm at the Sports & Recreation Center to kick off the 47th annual CUNYAC / Con Edison Championship. CSI is the No. 1 seed in the eight-team tournament.
