New York, N.Y. — Hakeem Kased (Brooklyn, NY / Franklin D. Roosevelt) put home a game winning lay-up with fifteen seconds remaining as the John Jay men’s basketball team earned its first conference win of the season, the Bloodhounds defeated the City College of New York (CCNY) 63-62 on the road at Nat Holman Gymnasium on Thursday.
Kased grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed jumper by newcomer Miguel Garcia (New York, NY / St. Raymond’s) before putting home the game winner as John Jay improved to 5-8 overall and upped its winning streak to two games. Kased led the Bloodhounds with team co-highs 12 points and six rebounds.
The game was close from the outset, as the contest saw 10 ties and 16 lead changes.
The visiting Bloodhounds got first run on the Beavers and led by as much as four through the early portion of the first half.
John Jay led 10-9 with 13:37 to play but CCNY used an 11-5 run to take a 20-15 lead at the 6:28 mark.
CCNY took the biggest lead by either team in the contest when it had a 24-18 lead with 6:50 to play.
But John Jay responded with a 7-0 run capped on a three point field goal by Kased with 4:42 to play which gave John Jay a 25-24 lead.
But CCNY went back on top and led by as much as four toward the end of the first half before going into halftime with a 32-31 lead.
Lay-ups by Alex Valerio (Flushing, NY / Francis Lewis) and Vaughn Mason (Bronx, NY / Alfred E. Smith) to start the second half gave John Jay its biggest lead of the half, a three point advantage with 17:55 to go.
Both teams stayed within an eyelash of each other with neither team leading by more than four points in the second half.
At one stretch both teams exchanged leads on five consecutive possessions leading to a 42-40 Beaver lead with 12:38 to play.
CCNY then went up by four (44-40), but John Jay responded with a 6-0 run to reclaim the lead capped on a lay-up by Chris Jaeger (Hicksville, NY / Hicksville) at the 9:31 mark. Jaeger contributed with 10 points and six rebounds for the Bloodhounds.
The game saw four ties and six lead changes over the next seven plus minutes. A pair of free throws by Valerio tied the game at 57 with 2:13 to play.
CCNY went back up by two on the next possession. But Mason connected on one of two free throws to cut the deficit in half.
John Jay then took its seventh lead of the game on a three point field goal by Garcia with fifty-five seconds left to give the Bloodhounds a 61-59 advantage. Garcia, the junior transfer from Hostos Community College, scored 11 points in his John Jay debut tonight.
The Beavers answered on the ensuing possession with a triple to reclaim the lead with thirty-four seconds to go.
John Jay turned the ball over with twenty-seven seconds remaining, but CCNY failed to capitalize. The Bloodhounds took advantage of the opportunity as Kased put back Garcia’s miss which turned out to be the game winner.
CCNY misconnected on a three point attempt with seven seconds left. But the Beavers were given second life as John Jay missed on both free throws after drawing a foul with two seconds remaining.
The Beavers though failed to get a quality shot off in the final seconds as the Bloodhounds prevailed.
John Jay outscored CCNY 19-13 in second chance points, including Kased’s two, the final field goal of the contest.
John Jay returns to action on Sat. Jan. 5 for a home match against Lehman College, 2 p.m. at the Doghouse.
