Men’s Basketball Sinks Maritime in Return to Home Floor

BROOKLYN, N.Y. —  Playing for the first time on The Hill Center floor in 42 days, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team secured a near wire-to-wire, 60-53, Skyline Conference victory over Maritime College on Wednesday evening. 

Senior Chris Mikos (Freehold, N.J./St. John Vianney) turned in a 21-point, 12-rebound double-double to lead the Bears (2-12, 1-5) and freshman Chris Williams (Trenton, N.J./Nottingham) added 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

How it Happened

St. Joseph's came out hot from the start shooting 8-for-9 and jumping out to an early 18-8 lead with Joseph Ghotra (Brooklyn, N.Y./New Hyde Park Memorial) draining his second triple that pushed the lead to double digits.

But the Bears cooled off and went scoreless over the next five minutes as the Privateers (3-10, 0-7) scored 11 unanswered and grabbed a 19-18 lead — their only lead of the contest — before Mikos tipped in a putback to end the drought and SJC carried a 32-25 lead into the lockers.

Mikos scored the Bears' five first points in the second half to stretch the lead to 13, 40-27, its largest of the game just four minutes into the new period. But SJC later went nearly nine minutes without a field goal, but managed to maintain their lead from the foul line, although whittled down to three points with two minutes to play.

Despite their struggles from the charity stripe this season, the Bears went 6-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final two minutes and held off the Maritime comeback bid that brought about a one-possession game at the one-minute mark.

For the Bears

• Mikos recorded his sixth double-double of the season, moving into a tie for the Skyline lead with Yeshiva's Gabriel Leifer. It was his seventh 20-point game finishing on 8-of-12 shooting and 5-of-7 from the stripe.
• Williams' 11 points and seven rebounds in a reserve role were both career-highs.
• Richie Simon (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) pulled down 10 caroms for his sixth double-digit rebounding effort and also handed out four assists.
• Evan Sirakis (Hollis Hills, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) netted nine points with two rebounds and two assists.
• Ghotra matched his career-high with eight points and shared the team lead with Simon dishing out four assists.
• All eight Bears to see action tallied at least one point. 
• SJC trailed for just 46 seconds in the game at featured two ties and two lead changes.

Next Up

The Bears look to build on the momentum of their first Skyline win and return to The Hill Center on Saturday, January 22 to host Sarah Lawrence College in a Skyline Conference inter-divisional matchup starting at 1 pm. Spectators are not allowed but live stats and video will be available at SJCBears.com/live.