By: Michael L. Damon
Stats
New York, N.Y. --- The John Jay men's basketball team played in front of a standing room only crowd with more than 600 people in attendance at the Doghouse on Tuesday night which included a banner ceremony before the game celebrating last season's conference championship. But the Bloodhounds were defeated as they fell 77-65 to Hunter College in its 2008-09 home and conference opener.
With the loss John Jay is now 0-4 (0-1 CUNYAC), while Hunter is 2-3 (1-0 CUNYAC).
Both teams had the hot hand for much of the contest. John Jay shot 52.1 percent from the floor (25-for-48), including 60 percent in the first half (12-for-20) while Hunter connected on 52.5 percent (32-for-61).
Hunter College led for most of the contest. But John Jay took the initial lead just five seconds into the contest. Junior guard
Gary Brady grabbed the ball from the opening tap and slipped through for an easy lay-up to take a 2-0 lead, but that would be the only lead John Jay would have.
The Hawks scored on their first four possessions, including 4-for-5 shooting, en route to an 8-0 run that gave Hunter an 8-2 lead.
Hunter maintained a comfortable lead for much of the first half. The Hawks grabbed a 10 point lead (23-13) with 12:01 to play, but John Jay answered with a 10-3 spurt to pull to within three (26-23) with 6:40 to play on a breakaway dunk by
Vaughn Mason (Bronx, NY, Alfred E. Smith), who had a team-high 17 points to go along with five rebounds.
But Hunter answered back with a 10-2 run to take a 36-25 lead with 3:24 to play before going into halftime up 40-32.
John Jay pulled to within six points of the lead on its opening possession of the second half on a jumper by Brady, who had 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting. But Hunter would go back up by double-figures moments later and John Jay never got to within seven points of the lead after that. Hunter's
Frantz Millian, who had a game-high 26 points on 12-for-14 shooting, connected on a jumper with 11:06 to play to give Hunter an 11 point advantage (58-47), and the Hawks never led by less than double-figures again.
Hunter outscored John Jay 58-38 in points in the paint and got double-digit scoring performances by
Joseph DeLuca with 15 points and
Maka Thomas with 12.
Miguel Garcia (New York, NY, St. Raymond's) had 16 for John Jay, while
Godfrey Mascall (Brooklyn, NY, Paul Robeson)had eight assists.
John Jay returns to action on Thu. Dec. 4 at Lehman at 7:15 p.m.
