Over the last couple of weeks the College of Staten Island men’s basketball team has made a habit of breaking a game open with a big run, and Friday evening’s tilt was no exception, as the Dolphins defeated the Hunter College Hawks at the Sportsplex in CUNYAC play, 83-72. The Dolphins erased a five-point halftime deficit, scoring 52 points in the second half to break things open, winning their 11th-straight game to improve to 12-2 overall and 7-0 in the conference. The Hawks slipped to 7-9, 3-5, respectively.
The opening minutes saw both teams jockey back and forth, as Hunter earned a five-point edge before CSI worked up a tie at 12-12 on a Jonathan Chadwick Myers three-ball. Hunter quickly pulled ahead again before CSI took its first lead at 16-15, when fellow senior Bloochy Magloire dunked one home at 11:21 of the first. The Dolphins got their biggest lead of the frame six minutes later, when Magloire scored a running lay-up to lift CSI, 31-24.
From there, however, the home Hawks worked their way back, and scored an 11-0 run to end the first half. Lester Anim caught fire; connecting on eight straight points, including a pair of three’s to give Hunter the first half lead, 35-31.
Hunter matched its biggest lead of six points at the 13:32 mark before CSI started to once again turn the tables. CSI went on an immediate 8-0 run, capped by a Chadwick-Myers layup that gave CSI back the lead, 48-46 at 10:55. The teams traded baskets before a Robert Borusiewicz freebie cut CSI’s lead to 54-53, and then the Dolphins made their run.
Another Magloire dunk started things, and Chadwick-Myers followed with a three. After two consecutive Hunter misses, Magloire canned another three-ball and Chadwick-Myers added a lay-up and before too long the Dolphins had themselves a 64-53 lead thanks to the 10-0 run.
After the Hawks were able to close to eight points, CSI’s Frankie Schettino and Magloire added quick points to give CSI its biggest lead of the game, 74-60, with just over two minutes to play. Schettino added free-throws later that got CSI up to a 16-point lead with under a minute to play before Hunter scored points to six of the final seven points to close to the 83-72 final.
CSI was led by Magloire’s 23 points on 10-14 shooting while Chadwick-Myers was just as brilliant, finishing with 18 points. The Dolphins got 12 points and a team-high 9 rebounds from Javon Cox, while Schettino dished out eight assists. The Dolphins shot a blistering 61% from the field in the second half, finishing with a 52% mark for the game while only committing 11 turnovers to the Hawks’ 13. Hunter was led by Anim’s 22 points, while Borusiewicz chalked up 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
CSI is back in action on Monday, when they host Kean University at the Sports & Recreation Center at 1pm in non-conference action.