The men's basketball team fell to Messiah College, 87-75, on Friday night in Grantham, PA as part of the Homewood Suites Tip-Off tournament. The Bloodhounds drop to 1-2 on the season while the Falcons improve to 2-0.
Senior
Kris Owens led the Bloodhounds with a double-double. The Queens, NY native recorded a game-high 28 points, 14 rebounds, and two steals. Senior
Korede Griffith scored 20 points, on 8-for-16 shooting, and had a game-high seven steals and four rebounds. The Guyana native now has 16 steals in three games for John Jay. Junior
Kendal Jordan picked up a game-high 15 rebounds to go along with seven points and one block. Senior
Darell Robinson added 11 points, three steals, and a team-high three assists. Junior
Calvin Ingram registered seven rebounds off the bench.
Messiah got off to an early 5-0 lead but the Bloodhounds cut it to 5-4 two minutes later. With 12:44 remaining in the first half, John Jay led 11-7. However, the Falcons recorded the next 12 points to give them a 19-11 lead halfway through. The Bloodhounds were able to trim the lead to five but Messiah ended the half on a 10-4 run to lead 47-27.
In the second half, Messiah quickly increased the lead to 25 but lay-ups by Griffith and Robinson cut the Falcons' lead to 52-31. Down by 21 with 16:28 left to go, Owens, Robinson, freshman
Michael Maldonado, and Griffith hit consecutive buckets to cut the deficit to 13. A few minutes later, Griffith recorded a steal and made a lay-up to cut the lead to 10. Both teams exchanged baskets the next eight minutes.
With Messiah leading 74-64 with just under five minutes, the Falcons registered the next five points to lead by 15 with 4:03 remaining. Messiah would go on to take the first game of the tournament by a score of 87-75.
John Jay outscored the Falcons, 48-40, in the second half. The Bloodhounds went 27-for-80 (33.8%) from the floor.
The Bloodhounds will now face DeSales University in a consolation game on Saturday, November 22, at 2pm.
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