Amherst, Mass.— The John Jay men’s basketball season came to an end Saturday evening, as the Bloodhounds’ run in the NCAA Division III Championships came to a close in a second-round contest at defending national champion No. 3 Amherst College, 96-74, at LeFrak Gymnasium.
The Bloodhounds’ season ends with a 14-16 overall record, after winning the City University of New York Athletic Conference for the first time in program history. Head coach Charles Jackson’s team won the first NCAA game for a CUNYAC school since 2005, when it beat host Moravian (Pa.) by an 80-74 decision Thursday night, to advance to Saturday night’s contest.
John Jay received a tremendous performance off the bench by junior guard Godfrey Mascall (Brooklyn, NY / Paul Robeson), who scored 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting, while adding a game-best four steals. A total of 14 of Mascall’s markers came in the second half.
“We were playing the defending champions tonight, and we had to play perfect,” said John Jay head coach Charles Jackson. “Amherst executed well and we got a little sloppy at times and when you play a team like Amherst you have to limit your mistakes because they will take advantage of you.”
The host Lord Jeffs (24-3) shot 77.4 percent (24-for-31) from the floor in the first half, and 60 percent overall on the evening. Amherst jumped out to a 59-32 lead at the break, and held a sizeable 45-26 edge on the boards.
John Jay went toe-to-toe with Amherst in the opening stages of the first half, and led by two on a pair of occasions in the first half. The Bloodhounds went up 12-10 with 13:16 remaining on a lay-in by Miguel Garcia (New York, NY / St. Raymond’s) (12 pts.).
But the Lord Jeffs followed with a 15-4 run over the next three plus minutes to take a 25-16 lead with 9:56 to go.
John Jay cut the lead to eight momentarily, but Amherst used one sweeping run, outscoring the Bloodhounds 34-15 over the final nine minutes of the first half to take a 27 point halftime lead. During that stretch Amherst connected on its final nine field goal attempts.
The Lord Jeffs coasted in the second half en route to securing a trip to the Division III sectionals, and will play in a round-of-16 game next weekend. John Jay closed to as close as 20 on a Mascall jumper with 4:51 to go, but could get no closer despite outscoring the Lord Jeffs by a 42-37 count in the final 20-minute session.
The Bloodhounds forced Amherst into 28 turnovers and capitalized with 34 points off of those miscues.
Amherst received a game-high 24 points from Fletcher Walters, while Brandon Jones (15 pts., 10 reb.), Kevin Hopkins (13 pts.) and Andrew Olson (12 pts., 12 asst.) also scored in double-figures.
“I’m proud of my accomplishments in my John Jay career,” said Kased. “We were not a fluke and we proved it by winning a game in the NCAA tournament.”
