Etheart’s Second-Straight Double-Double Leads Men’s Basketball Over Cabrini for First Win of 2019-20

GALLOWAY, N.J. — Four Bears scored 10-plus points as the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team (1-1) downed Cabrini University (2-3), 93-81, on Saturday in the consolation game of the Stockton Tip-Off Tournament.

Senior Stephane Etheart (Hollis, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) went off for his second-straight double-double with a career-high 30 points and 16 rebounds while classmate Dimitri Sirakis (Oakland Gardens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) put up a season-high 25 in the victory.

How It Happened
The game opened as a neck-and-neck affair with Cabrini holding an early two-point cushion until Sirakis buried one of his three triples on the night for a 13-11 bump with just under 17 minutes on the clock. Neither side gained much of an edge until about halfway through the period as Cabrini led 27-23 but used an and-one from Joshua Jones and a trey from D.J. Smith for the first 10-point lead of the game (8:59).

Down 35-25 with about seven minutes to go before the break, SJC erupted for 13 unanswered points capped off by a Chris Mikos (Freehold, N.J./Saint John Vianney) dunk that caused the Cavaliers to burn a timeout with 4:06 remaining. Cabrini tied things at 42 with 55 seconds left, but Sirakis nailed a jumper 15 seconds later for the final points of the half and a 44-42 lead.

The Bears maintained their momentum as the second half opened, with back-to-back buckets from Mikos and Sebastien Etheart (Hollis, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) putting them up 56-48 at 16:03.

Senior forward Kavan Meiner (Staten Island, N.Y./Susan Wagner) hit a pair of freebies four minutes later to keep the Bears up by eight, but Cabrini immediately mounted nine unanswered to take the lead and stretched it to seven (72-65) on a Ryan Byars triple with eight minutes left in regulation.

St. Joseph's didn't quit and their defense tightened up in the final minutes, outscoring the Cavaliers 26-9 over the last 7:02 with 12 of those points coming from Sirakis as the senior captain closed out the Bears' first victory of the new season.

For the Bears

• Seven of Steph Etheart's game-high 16 boards were offensive and he shot 12-24 from the field for his 30 points, adding six steals on defense.
• Sirakis had five steals to go along with his 25 points (10-12 FT).
• Mikos finished with eight points, eight rebounds, and three assists as he and Seb Etheart (6 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast, 4 stl) did a little bit of everything in the win.
• Meiner scored 12 points (7 reb) off the bench while Frank Reali (Staten Island, N.Y./Susan Wagner) added 10 points (3 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl).

Next Up
The Bears return to the court in a week for their home opener against Lehman College at The Hill Center on Saturday (Nov. 23) tipping off at 1 p.m. Live stats and video will be streaming at SJCBears.com/live.