By: By Michael L. Damon
Box Score
New York, N.Y. --- The John Jay men's basketball team fell behind late in the first half and were down 14 after twenty minutes of basketball and it proved to be the winning difference as the gritty Bloodhounds were defeated by Baruch College, 82-76, at the Doghouse on Wednesday evening.
The visiting Bearcats never trailed in the first half and were tied 15-15 with John Jay with 12:07 to play.
But Baruch used a 6-2 spurt to take a 21-17 lead with 9:10 to go and the Bearcats never trailed again.
Then up 21-19, Baruch closed out the first half with an 18-8 run to take a 14 point lead as the Bearcats led 39-25 at halftime.
The Bloodhounds though went right to work to start the second half and quickly cut into the Baruch lead. John Jay went on a 12-0 run to open the half and were down a deuce with 15:34 to play with tremendous help from sophomore forward
Chris Jaeger (Hicksville, NY, Hicksville)who capped the run en route to scoring all of his game-high 23 points in the second half.
But that was as close as John Jay would get. Despite never owning the lead, they did not go away either and both schools matched runs the entire second half.
Baruch led by either nine or 10 points on five occasions and the Bloodhounds narrowed the margin back to four each time, while failing to reduce the deficit any further.
John Jay finally pulled to within three with thirty four seconds to go on a Jaeger lay-up, but Baruch connected on a pair from the foul line to go back up by five. Baruch went to the foul line 35 times, compared to 13 for John Jay.
After the Bloodhounds failed to connect on a three point field goal on the ensuing possession, Baruch went 1 for 2 from the line to go back up by a half dozen points with twenty one seconds left.
Another Jaeger lay-up off an offensive rebound got John Jay back to within four with twelve seconds left, but no closer as Baruch connected on a pair from the foul line to go up 82-76. One final three point attempt rimmed up with just a few seconds remaining to secure with win for Baruch.
The Bearcats had four players score in double figures and were led by
Tammer Farid with 17,
Mike Dietz with 15,
Lionel Hilaire with 12 and
Eric Quintero with 10.
George Kunkel had a team-high eight rebounds for Baruch.
Jaeger added 12 rebounds to go along with his game-high 23 points, while
Gary Brady (Bronx, NY, Martin Luther King) added 16,
Godfrey Mascall (Brooklyn, NY, Paul Robeson) had 15 and
William Smallwood (Bronx, NY, Cardinal Hayes) had 13. Mascall also registered seven steals and had six assists.
John Jay returns to action on Mon. Feb. 2 for a home contest against William Paterson Univ. at 7 p.m.
