Box Score
New York, NY –The John Jay men’s basketball team sent a message to the rest of the conference that they are not to be taken lightly. Baruch College learned it firsthand tonight as the Bloodhounds rolled to their fourth consecutive home conference win with a 68-51 win over the Bearcats on Wednesday.
The win improves John Jay to 6-15 (5-4 CUNYAC) while Baruch is now 8-11 (6-3 CUNYAC).
Godfrey Mascall (Brooklyn, NY/ Paul Roberson) had a turnover free game while recording a game-high 10 assists to go along with seven points, and nine rebounds (all offensive) to lead John Jay. Fellow teammate Vaughn Mason (Bronx, NY/ Alfred E Smith) recorded a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds, while Kelvin Luna (Corona, NY/ Flushing) added 11. Alex Valerio (Flushing, NY/ Francis Lewis) added 10 points and eight rebounds (all in the second half) for John Jay.
Both teams went back and forth during the first several minutes. But Baruch managed to wrestle their way to a five point lead midway through the first half (13-8).
But John Jay would outscore Baruch 10-4 over the next couple of minutes to grab an 18-17 lead.
After the Bearcats reclaimed the lead momentarily, the Bloodhounds exploded with an 11-2 run to take a 28-21 lead capped by a Mason trey with 1:17 to play.
The Bloodhounds would never trail again in the contest and took a nine point lead in the final minute of the first half on another Mason triple off a feed from Mascall, who had eight assists in the first half alone. Baruch would end the half with a three pointer by Adrian Serrano (Brooklyn, NY/ Christ the King) to cut the Bloodhound lead to 31-25 at halftime.
Baruch opened the second half on a 5-2 run to cut the Bloodhound lead to 33-30, but it was as close as the Bearcats would get as John Jay put on the afterburner and catapulted away. They went on a 12-2 run to take a 13 point lead (45-32) on a three ball by Emilio Gomez (Moca, Dominican Republic/ William H Taft) with 13:13 to play.
But the Bloodhounds were not finished, they immediately went on a 17-4 run (29-8 total run) to take a 24-point lead (62-38) on a three point field goal by Luna with 4:32 to play.
Kevin Lavare (Sodus, NY/ Sodus Central) drilled two jumpers in the final 1:21, and Muhammed Karim-Abdul (Brooklyn, NY/ Franklin Lane) closed out the scoring on a breakaway lay-up off a Yuri Babayev (Fresh Meadows, NY/ John Bowne) pass to seal the deal.
Baruch was led in scoring and rebounding by Phil Schatz (Middle Village, NY/ Archbishop Molloy) with 12 points and eight boards.
John Jay will return to action on Sat. Jan. 27 at CCNY, 12 p.m.
