Jersey City, N.J.— The John Jay men’s basketball team lost on the road Wednesday as the Bloodhounds were defeated by New Jersey City University, 66-58. John Jay is now 3-7 on the season.
John Jay was led by Alex Valerio (Flushing, NY / Francis Lewis) with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Hakeem Kased (Brooklyn, NY / Franklin D. Roosevelt) had 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds off the bench.
The Bloodhounds got first run on the host Gothic Knights and led 11-6 5:31 into the contest. Emilio Gomez (Moca, Dominican Republic / William Taft), who scored 10 points in the contest, netted a jumper to cap the run.
NJCU then went on a 5-0 run to tie the game. But the Bloodhounds immediately went on a 7-0 run to take their biggest lead of the half, capped by a Valerio jumper with 11:15 remaining.
But NJCU stuck around and claimed its first lead of the half when it led 25-24 at the 5:28 mark. Both teams then stayed within arms length of each other. But down 30-29 with just over two minutes remaining, John Jay used an 11-5 run to go into halftime up 40-35 capped by a three point field goal by Robert Cartmell (Floral Park, NY / Floral Park Memorial), his lone field goal attempt of the evening.
Both teams exchanged baskets through the first nine minutes of the second half and John Jay led through the early portion of the stanza. But NJCU took its first lead of the half at the 11:07 mark.
But the Bloodhounds used a 4-0 run on back to back field goals by Kased to go back up 52-49.
The game remained close and the Bloodhounds still led with less than four minutes to go. A jumper in the paint by Valerio with 3:56 to go gave John Jay a 58-54 lead. But the scoring stopped there.
John Jay went 0-for-4 down the stretch and committed four turnovers in the final four minutes as the Gothic Knights went on a 12-0 run over that span to close out the contest.
The Bloodhounds shot 30 percent in the second half (8-for-27) after shooting 63 percent (17-for-27) in the first half.
John Jay returns to action on Sat. Dec. 29 against Drew University in day one of the NYU tournament at 3 p.m.
