The College of Staten Island men’s basketball team kept their winning streak intact, cruising by visiting City College of New York by an 83-47 count as part of CUNYAC play at the Sports & Recreation Center this evening. The win was the third in a row for the Dolphins, all inside of CUNYAC play, as they leveled to 4-4 overall and 3-0 in the conference, while the Beavers fell to 0-7, 0-3, respectively.
The Dolphins never trailed in the contest, and despite the absence of leading scorer Christian Taylor, were able to prevail thanks to suffocating defense that forced 23 turnovers and a sharp 52.5% shooting touch from the floor, powered by a 63% clip in the first half.
CSI raced to a 13-3 lead, spearheaded by a pair of Edin Bracic three’s and then ended with a dunk from Adeola Latunji. Later, while the defense forced an 0-5 stretch for the Beavers to go with three turnovers, CSI mounted a 12-0 rip to extend to 30-11 at the 8:24 mark of the first stanza, hoisted by four straight Stephen Flagg points, and layups from Latunji, Rigaud Destime, and Raymond Savage, who earned his first start in Taylor’s absence. After CCNY managed to cut the edge to 37-25 with under two to play in the stanza, Latunji rocked in another dunk on a Savage alley-oop that sent the crowd to a frenzy, and lifted CSI to a commanding 45-27 edge at the break, seemingly in full control.
The Dolphins closed the door in the early stages of the second half. An offensive foul negated a lay-up by Stephen Flagg, and CCNY followed with a three-point play from Enesco Hunte, getting CCNY back involved. But CSI answered the bell, and whipped together an immediate 8-0 run, and did it again after CCNY scored a bucket to pull out in front, 61-32. Latunji powered in two baskets while Flagg added a three-point play.
A three-pointer by Savage extended CSI to 30 points and from there the game teetered back-and-forth as both teams emptied the benches. The Dolphins played a total of 12 players, with all reaching the scoring column.
CSI was led by Latunji’s 14 points on 7-8 shooting from the floor, while Bracic added 13. Flagg posted 9 with a team-high seven rebounds. Savage posted seven points and a game-high five assists. CCNY was led by Williams’ 13 points. The Dolphins finished 31-59 from the floor (52.5%), holding CCNY to an ice-cold 16-63 (25.4%), a rip that included a 4-30 performance from beyond the arc.
The Dolphins will now have an extensive break, picking up their season as part of the 16th Annual Tournament of Heroes which will begin on Friday, December 29, at the Sports & Recreation Center. Including the playoffs, the Dolphins have won 21 straight games inside of the CUNYAC.
GAME VIDEO
