New York, N.Y. — The John Jay men’s basketball team was outscored by SUNY New Paltz 41-29 in the second half as the Hawks defeat the Bloodhounds 76-68 at the John Jay Doghouse on Saturday afternoon.
The loss drops John Jay to 1-9, while New Paltz improves to 4-3.
Dustin Yeates (Brooklyn, NY/ South Side) paced the Bloodhounds with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Kelvin Luna (Corona, NY/ Flushing) recorded 18 points, including 4-for-7 from three point range, and nine rebounds for John Jay, while Alex Valerio (Flushing, NY/ Francis Lewis) came off the bench and had 14 points.
The Hawks were led by Amseshem Foluke-Henderson (Queens, NY/ American) with 19 points and six rebounds, while John Hauser (East Williston, NY/ Chaminade) came off the bench for 17 and a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Bloodhounds led early and led by as much as six in the first half before going into the locker room with a 39-35 halftime advantage.
The two teams went back and forth in the second half for the first several minutes but New Paltz took the lead for good at the 10:18 mark on a three-point field goal by Jimmy Sugrue (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY/ Hastings) to cap a 5-0 Hawks run that broke a 49-49 tie.
New Paltz went up by as much as 10 later in the half on a pair of free throws by Tony Cannon (New York, NY/ Millbrook) with 4:28 to play.
But the Bloodhounds answered with a three-point field goal by Luna to cut the deficit back to seven. John Jay got as close as four on a another trey by Luna with 18 seconds remaining but the Hawks, who had foul shooting troubles early in the contest (4-for-12 in the first half), sunk four clutch free throws in the final seconds to put the game out of reach.
New Paltz shot 19-for-25 from the charity stripe in the second half (76 percent) for a 62 percent clip for the game.
John Jay will return to action on Sat. Dec. 30 at Connecticut College at 3 p.m.
