New York, N.Y.—  The John Jay men’s basketball team dug themselves a deep, deep hole they almost managed to crawl out of, as the Bloodhounds rallied back from a 22 point deficit in the final 13 minutes only to lose a 79-76 heartbreaker at home to the College of Staten Island (CSI) on Friday evening.

 

The loss leaves John Jay at 7-18 (6-7 CUNYAC), while Staten Island is 12-12 (8-4 CUNYAC).

 

The host Bloodhounds never led in the contest and fell behind by 20 (24-4) less than nine minutes into the affair.

 

John Jay answered with a 10-0 run of their own to cut the Dolphin lead in half (24-14) with 7:34 to go on a jumper by Alex Valerio (Flushing, NY/ Francis Lewis) who scored 15 points off the bench for the Bloodhounds.

 

But John Jay would fail to get the deficit to within single digits in the first half as CSI accelerated and increased the lead again.

 

Up by 11 (30-19) with 6:05 to go, the Dolphins went on an 11-2 run to take another 20 point lead (41-21 with 2:50 to play) capped by a fastbreak lay-up by Robert Mesjasz (Staten Island, NY/ St. Peter’s) who had 19 points for CSI.

 

The visiting Dolphins shot 52 percent from the floor in the first half (13-for-25), including 86 percent from three point range (6-for-7) in the opening stanza highlighted by a 5-for-5 performance by Mike Jones (Washington, NJ/ Warren Hills) who had 17 of his 21 points in the first half.

John Jay then used a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to 14 (41-27) with 1:02 to play on a continuation three point basket by Kelvin Luna (Corona, NY/ Flushing). But CSI would sink a pair of free throws right before halftime to hold a 43-27 lead at the break.

 

John Jay opened the second half outscoring CSI 4-0 to cut the deficit to 12 (43-31), but the Dolphins would pull away again.

 

Still holding a 14 point lead (50-36 with 15:39 remaining), CSI went on a 10-2 run to take a 60-38 lead with 12:44 remaining capped by a three point field goal by Ryan Hennessey (Staten Island, NY/ St. Joseph’s by the Sea).

 

But the Bloodhounds did not go away and chipped away at the lead the rest of the way, behind Godfrey Mascall (Brooklyn, NY/ Paul Roberson) who scored 27 of his career-high 29 points in the second half, as John Jay recorded a season-best 49 second half points.

 

Mascall, who also had a game-high five steals, scored 18 points in the final 13 minutes of the contest.

 

Still down by 15 (69-54) with under eight minutes to play, the Bloodhounds used a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 69-63 capped by a free throw by Mascall that finished off a three point play with 5:30 to play.

 

John Jay would dwindle their deficit to four (75-71) with 2:11 to play on a three point field goal by Vaughn Mason (Bronx, NY/ Alfred E Smith). After CSI went back up by six on the next possession Luna, who had 18 points in the contest, drilled two free throws to narrow the gap again.

With 1:06 to play CSI’s Gari Blackett (Brooklyn, NY/ Brooklyn College Academy) knocked down two free throws to get the Dolphins back up by six (79-73).

 

On John Jay’s next possession Valerio connected on 1-of-2 free throws to make the score 79-74.

 

After CSI failed to connect on the ensuing possession the Bloodhounds got the lead to within three on a pair of Mascall free throws with 15 seconds remaining.

 

John Jay then used their final timeout. CSI followed with a timeout of their own after failing to inbound the ball.

 

CSI’s Christian Montervino (Ewing, NJ/ Ewing) would finally be fouled with 10 seconds remaining, but missed on both foul attempts giving John Jay a final chance in the closing seconds.

 

Mason yanked the rebound off the missed attempt and raced up the court for a driving lay-up, which would have cut the lead to one, but that missed the target as time expired leaving John Jay with a three point loss in their 2006-07 regular season finale.

 

John Jay will now await and see if and who they play in the 2007 Con Edision CUNYAC men’s basketball championship at the City College of New York starting on Sun. Feb. 18. A potential five way tie for fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth (top eight make the playoffs) is still to be determined who holds the various tie breaker as John Jay, Hunter, Medgar Evers, and New York City Tech all stand at 6-7 in conference play with Lehman College (5-7 CUNYAC) scheduled to face CCNY on Saturday.