Old Westbury Topples Men’s Basketball in Skyline Tilt

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. — The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team (6-8, 2-3 Skyline) took their two-game win streak to SUNY College at Old Westbury (9-6, 5-1 Skyline) on Saturday looking to go above .500 in league play, but the Bears were defeated, 72-62, despite 19 points off the bench from sophomore Chris Mikos (Freehold, N.J./Saint John Vianney).

How It Happened

The Panthers opened the game on a 9-2 run and — after an SJC three from Frank Reali (Staten Island, N.Y./Susan Wagner) that cut the gap to four — went off on a 17-2 spurt for a commanding 19-point lead (26-7) with 8:48 to go before halftime. 

Old Westbury was in control for all of the first shooting 54.8 percent from the floor while holding the Bears to a 24.1 percent mark as Mikos was the lone bright spot with 13 of his 19 points coming in the opening frame. They held a 42-24 edge at the break behind 12 points from the game's scoring leader Pedro Marquez and eight from the Skyline's sixth-leading scorer, Justin Alleyne-Washington.

St. Joseph's mustered eight unanswered points early in the second, five came from senior captain Dimitri Sirakis (Oakland Gardens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep), to get within 12 (46-34) just five minutes into the half. From that point on, Old Westbury was able to maintain their advantage behind an attack led by Marquez and Alleyne-Washington. 

The final 4 minutes of regulation saw the Bears make a late run, rattling off an 11-5 behind an eight-point spark by Stephane Etheart (Hollis, N.Y./St. Francis Prep), but this run would only pull the deficit to just below double-digits momentarily. 

For the Bears

• Mikos poured in a career-high 19 points (6-9 FG), along with five rebounds off the bench.

• Reali put up 15 points and pulled down 3 rebounds in defeat.

• Sebastien Etheart (Hollis, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) added eight points, three boards, five assists, and three steals to the stat sheet.

• Stephane Etheart chipped in eight points as well, scoring all eight in the final 3:26 of regulation.

Next Up for the Bears

On Wednesday (Jan. 22), the Bears travel to play Purchase College (9-5, 4-1 Skyline) on the road, with tip off set for 7 p.m. Links to live stats and video available at SJCBears.com/live