Trailing at halftime by four, the men's basketball team stormed back by using a strong second half to overcome CCNY, 80-76, on Tuesday night at the Doghouse. The Bloodhounds improve to 13-8 on the season and 7-5 in the conference. The Beavers drop to 2-18 and 2-9 in CUNYAC.
Sophomore
Kyle LaGuardia finished with the best game of his Bloodhound career with a team-high 18 points on a miraculous 9-of-10 shooting. The forward also grabbed eight rebounds and had three assists. Junior
Doug Levy notched his 15th double-double with 13 points, a game-high 19 boards (including a season-high 10 offensive), and a game-high two blocks.
Senior
Essien Epps registered 17 points, six rebounds, and a game-high six assists. Senior
Jerome Petty contributed 11 points and senior
Jordan Aiken came off the bench to pour in 12 points.
The first four minutes went back-and-forth as the score was tied at seven apiece. CCNY followed on a 11-2 run with 12:08 left in the opening half.
Roughly ninety seconds later, LaGuardia hit a jumper to trim the lead down to 22-17. With 6:20 left, the Beavers increase their lead to 40-29. The Bloodhounds went to work on a 9-0 run and at the half, the visitors led 43-39.
Petty opened the third with a three-pointer and LaGuardia followed with a layup to give the Bloodhounds their first lead since 17:47 of the first. With the game tied, CCNY registered five straight with 15:17 on the clock.
Down by four, LaGuardia made back-to-back layups to even the score at 55-55 with 8:46 remaining.
Trailing one one, Aiken drained a three and Epps hit a layup to put John Jay ahead by four. CCNY cut the deficit back to one with 3:17 left to go but the hosts responded on a 6-0 run with Ford scoring four points. The Bloodhounds closed out the game making nine of its final 10 free-throws.
John Jay went 29-for-70 (41.4%) from the field, 6-for-29 (20.7%) from behind the arc, and 16-for-24 (66.7%) from the free-throw line.
The Bloodhounds hit the road for a conference game at Medgar Evers College on Tuesday, February 5, at 7:00 pm.
