New York, N.Y. --- The John Jay men’s basketball team lost a non conference affair on Saturday as the Bloodhounds were defeated by Drew University, 64-53, in the opening round of the New York University Holiday tournament at NYU’s Coles Sports Center.
Drew University scored the first four points of the game and never trailed in the contest. After the Rangers jumped out to the four point advantage the Bloodhounds used a 6-2 spurt to tie the affair at 6-6 on a jumper by Alex Valerio (Flushing, NY / Francis Lewis) at the 15:18 mark of the first half.
But Drew, on a pair of three point field goals, used a 6-0 run to go up by six and led the rest of the way.
John Jay got to within four on the next possession, but Drew used a 4-0 spurt to go up by eight. The Rangers led by as much as 10 in the first half, and grabbed a 25-15 advantage at the 6:48 mark of the stanza.
But the Bloodhounds roared back and went on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to three (25-22) at the 3:10 mark on another jumper by Valerio who had nine points and a team-high eight rebounds in the contest. Junior guard Yuri Babayev (Fresh Meadows, NY / John Bowne) sparked the run by scoring five unanswered points including a three point field and a fast break lay-up.
John Jay would get no closer however and Drew used a 6-2 run over the final 2:50 of the first half to go into halftime up 31-24.
The Rangers opened the second half outscoring John Jay 18-6 to take its biggest lead of the contest (19) at 49-30 with 11:44 to play.
The Bloodhounds used a 7-0 run, in which all points were scored by Vaughn Mason (Bronx, NY / Alfred E. Smith), to get back to within 12 with 7:32 to play. Mason recorded back to back fast break dunks to start the rally, and led John Jay with 15 second half points.
But Drew went back up by 19 with 4:31 to play. The Bloodhounds went on another 7-0 run to make the score 58-46 at the 2:36 mark on a continuation three point play by Chris Jaeger (Hicksville, NY / Hicksville). But Drew kept the Bloodhounds at bay in the final two minutes to preserve the win.
Gerard Mullins (Freehold, NJ / St. Rose) paced Drew with a game-high 17 points.
The Bloodhounds return to action on Sun. Dec. 30 against Denison College for the consolation game of the NYU Holiday Tournament at 1 p.m.
