By: Michael L. Damon
mdamon@jjay.cuny.edu
(212) 237-8322
Box Score BOX SCORE
New York, N.Y.— The crowd was one of the largest in Doghouse history, and the Bloodhounds gave the overflow Division I type crowd a reason to watch for all forty minutes, but John Jay fell an eyelash short in the end as the Bloodhounds lost a 70-69 heartbreaker to conference rival Hunter College on homecoming night.
The loss leaves John Jay at 3-2 (0-1 CUNYAC) on the young season, while Hunter improves to 3-2 (1-0 CUNYAC) this year.
John Jay was led by
Isaiah Holman with 18 points and seven rebounds, while
Jerome Alexander had 16.
Matt Collins had eight points and dished out seven assists in the contest. Hunter was led by Jeffrey Daza with 17 points.
The game was very tight in the first half. Despite Hunter owning the lead for nearly the entire stanza, the first twenty minutes of basketball saw just four ties. The Hawks led by as much as six in the first half and led by that margin on two occasions. Hunter's six point leads were in the very early stages of the game with its most recent one being 16-10 with less than eight minutes gone by.
John Jay's only lead in the first half was when the Bloodhounds led 23-22 with just under six minutes remaining.
But Hunter closed out the final five plus minutes on an 11-5 run to take a 33-28 lead at halftime.
Early in the second half, the Bloodhounds came to life and appeared to take control of the contest. With the enormous spirited crowd behind them, John Jay opened the second half outscoring the visitors 30-15 over the first eleven minutes of play to take a 10 point lead at 58-48.
But Hunter never lost its composure and weathered the storm to stay in the contest. The Hawks chipped away and chipped away. Though never owning the lead in the second half once they lost it, the Hawks took the lead 70-69 with 1:06 to play.
Hunter's final surge came over the final 2:36. After Holman netted a three point field goal to give John Jay a five point lead at 69-64, Hunter put the clamps on the Bloodhounds and held them scoreless the rest of the way. In the meantime, Hunter ended the game on a 6-0 run to take the lead with 1:06 to go and win the contest.
John Jay had a chance to win the game in the final seconds. While trailing 70-69, Holman grabbed a defensive rebound off a Hunter miss with under thirty-five seconds to go to give John Jay a chance at a final shot.
But Hunter, who had only been whistled for three fouls through the first nineteen plus minutes of the second half, had three more fouls to give before the Bloodhounds could get into a one-and-one bonus. Wisely, Hunter used all three fouls it had to give before John Jay could get a good look at the basket. As a result, John Jay had to inbound the ball with 17.6 seconds, 11.8 seconds and 6.3 seconds.
Finally in the closing seconds, Holman put up a jumper that came up short, leading to a John Jay foul with .06 seconds remaining.
Hunter missed the front end of a one-and-one leaving the Bloodhounds with just .03 seconds remaining. But John Jay could not get off a quality shot as Hunter escaped with the hard fought win.
The Bloodhounds were limited with just a pair of trips to the free throw line as John Jay only had two attempts each half, and were 2-for-4 from the line the entire game.
Despite the loss, the Bloodhounds maintained control of the basketball as they committed a season-low 11 turnovers, while Hunter committed 20. John Jay held a 23-7 advantage on points off turnovers.
John Jay is back in action on Friday for day one of the Optimist Classic at Salisbury University. The Bloodhounds will face the hosts at 8 p.m., while the other two teams in the tournament, Penn-State Abington and CUNYAC foe Medgar Evers College will clash at 6 p.m.
