The College of Staten Island men’s basketball squad is looking to keep their winning streak alive tonight, and there is plenty on the line this time around. The top-seeded Dolphins will be squaring off against No. 5 Hunter College as part of the CUNYAC/Con Edison Men’s Basketball Semifinals with a trip to the CUNYAC Final hanging in the balance. The game will be played at the Nat Holman Gymnasium on the campus of City College of New York at 6pm. Tickets to the game are FREE and can be secured via the CUNYAC website or by clicking here. If you cannot make the game tonight, CSI SportsNet will have you covered with its live webstream available at www.csidolphins.com/live. David Pizzuto and Michael Baybusky will be live courtside calling all of the action with the pregame show, beginning at 5:30pm.
The Dolphins are entering the semifinal foray with plenty of steam. The team is riding a program-best 23-game winning streak, boasting a 24-2 mark overall. They have defeated Hunter College twice this season, and have taken the last eight off of the Hawks all-time, including a win in quarterfinal play last year. CSI leads the all-time series with Hunter in the postseason by an 8-3 count.
CSI got to the semifinals by blasting through CCNY on Saturday, 85-47. The Hawks went on the road and scored a 90-80 upset over No. 4 Brooklyn College to punch their ticket to the semifinal. In the other CUNYAC Semifinal, #2 York will square off against #6 Lehman.
CSI recently closed to a 13-0 home record after their home win against CCNY on Saturday. CSI is 1-1 on neutral turf this season, both games coming in the season-opening tournament at Mary Washington University. CSI lost to Eastern Mennonite, 95-93, in overtime, then beat Montclair State the next day, 61-55…With another 20 points on Tuesday, Bloochy Magloire lifted his career point total to 1,753, 11 shy of Jordan Young’s 1,764 career markers which stand second in CSI career history. Freshman Frankie Schettino should make history tonight, needing only a single assist to tie John Cali’s school record of 187 assists in a single season, set in 1998-99.
The hot-shooting Dolphins have now shot over 50% from the floor in six of its last 9 games, all wins. CSI shot 51.8% against the Hawks when the two teams met at Hunter on January 17, and most recently shot 48.3% when the teams met in Staten Island just two weeks ago. CSI Head Coach Tony Petosa won his 34th CUNYAC postseason game on Saturday, and now boasts a 34-19 overall record in CUNYAC postseason play.
Look for CSI’s shooting behind the arc to be a big story tonight. Hunter is 7-0 this season when shooting better than 40% from beyond the arc, while the Dolphins boast a similar 12-0 mark in the same category. Conversely, both teams are doing well limiting opponents from long range, holding teams to a combined 34% from deep. The Dolphins connected on just 3-13 three-pointers on Saturday (23%). CSI is just 5-2 when connecting on just 25% or less of their three-pointers, 19-0 when shooting 26% or better. CSI has out-rebounded their opponents in 11 of their last 12 games, and are 20-1 when winning the rebounding war. Hunter College has gone 9 straight games losing the rebounding edge.
