The No. 21 College of Staten Island men’s basketball squad left little to doubt the entire way, punching their ticket to the CUNYAC/Con Edison Postseason Championship Semifinals via an 85-47 drubbing of visiting City College of New York as part of quarterfinal play held at the Sports & Recreation Center. The win, CSI’s 23rd in a row, improved the squad to 24-2 overall, while the Beavers ended their season with a 7-19 mark.
The final score did enough to illustrate how dominant the Dolphins were in the quarterfinal, but CSI was razor sharp from the get-go, never leaving the game in question for any period of time. The Dolphins scorched the Beavers for a 57.7% shooting performance in the game’s first half, and on the opposite end, held the Beavers to just 17.2% shooting with 9 turnovers in the game’s first half. Four of those turnovers for the Beavers came on back-to-back possessions in the opening four minutes as CSI got off to a 13-0 lead. From there, CSI never took the foot off of the pedal.
After a Jordan Ortega basket cut CSI’s lead to 19-8, the Dolphins ripped off a 14-1 run, spearheaded by six different Dolphin scorers with three point buckets each from Bloochy Magloire and Jonathan Chadwick-Myers. After a CCNY three, CSI scored the final five points of the stanza, including a dunk by Magloire and three straight Matt Van Manen points to take a commanding 38-12 lead into the locker room. For CSI, the 12 points allowed was the lowest the team has allowed in a half this season, and told the story of the frustration CCNY had to generate offense on the afternoon.
Play did open up in the second stanza, where the Dolphins opted to trade baskets, knowing CCNY needed an offensive explosion to get back into it. Along the way, CSI used another big run, this time 13-0, to run to a 53-16 lead with 13:54 to go, helped by another five-point burst by Magloire and consecutive inside drives from Will Fonseca and Dylan Bulger. A 10-1 run later in the frame, gave CSI’s its biggest lead, 80-36, before CCNY finished the final 3:30 of the game on a 10-7 run of their own, with many reserve players on the court for both sides.
CSI was a sharp 51.1% in the second period, leading to an overall shooting percentage of 54% for the game. They also out-rebounded the Beavers, 54-37. CCNY was just 15-of-72 from the floor, good for just 20.8%. CSI was led by Bloochy Magloire, named game Most Valuable Player with a 20-point, five-rebound performance, shooting 8-14 from the floor. Chadwick-Myers added 14 points, while Javon Cox and Fonseca dumped in 11 apiece. CCNY was led by Ortega’s 10 markers.
For CSI, the 47 points allowed was the second-lowest amount allowed by the team in CUNYAC Postseason history and the least since a 77-46 win over Hunter College in the 1999 Quarterfinals. CSI won for the 11th straight time over CCNY and beat the Beavers for the third time this season. With six rebounds today, senior Van Manen became the 22nd CSI Dolphin in history to surpass 500 for his career. The Dolphins improved their overall record in the CUNYAC Quarterfinal round to 29-8 and will move on to the Semifinals for the fifth straight season.
Up next the Dolphins will face #5 Hunter College, a 90-80 winner over #4 Brooklyn College in other quarterfinal action. The two teams will meet on Tuesday, February 25, at CCNY’s Nat Holman Gymnasium at 6pm. The other semifinal game will feature the winners of #2 York College vs. #7 John Jay College and #3 Baruch College vs. #6 Lehman College. Both of those quarterfinal games are being played this evening.
