Hoboken, NJ | The College of Staten Island men’s basketball team suffered their fifth loss of the season tonight at the hands of non-conference opponents, Stevens Institute of Technology. Christian Taylor’s 18 points weren’t enough to lift the Dolphins past the Ducks in a low scoring affair. The Ducks managed to squeeze past the Dolphins, 58-55 to improve to 4-2 overall while knocking the Dolphins down a peg to 1-5.
Riguad Destime was all over the court in the early goings of the game, picking up a pair of steals and an assist within the first three minutes. The Dolphins took a five-point lead four minutes into the game when Destime converted a pair from the charity stripe. Down five the Ducks would take the lead after going on a 14-2 run to go in front 19-12 with 9 minutes remaining in the first half.
There was a two-minute span where neither team was able to find the bottom of the net but that drought was ended when Kevin Florio sank a 3-point shot to put the Ducks up eight. Taylor was able to cut into the lead when he drained both of his attempts from the free-throw line followed up by a layup. Stevens did their best to keep the Dolphins at bay, however, Austin Mick sunk his chance from range before Chris Velaquez made it a four-point game with a layup at the buzzer.
The offensive struggles continued in the second half as both teams hunkered down on defense and limited second-chance opportunities. The Ducks were never able to pull away as the Dolphins hung around constantly matching whatever the Ducks did. Andrew Kartalis, the Dolphins’ CUNYAC Rookie of the Week, hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead down to one with 7:14 remaining in the game. With 2:03 remaining on the clock, Adeola Latunji hit a jumper to give the Dolphins their first lead since they led 12-10 in the first half.
That lead for the Dolphins would only last 40 seconds as Florio would come down and hit his attempt to regain the lead for the Ducks. Over the last 40 seconds, the Dolphins managed just one shot from the field which came with two seconds on the clock.
Staten Island was unable to build off of their win over NYU and dropped a close bout to Stevens and will now look ahead to their first CUNYAC game of the season when they travel to take on CCNY on Friday.
