Men’s Basketball Defeats Merchant Marine on the Road for Second-Straight Win

KINGS POINT, N.Y. — Behind 26 points from junior guard Frank Reali (Staten Island, N.Y./Susan Wagner), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team (8-12, 4-7) defeated the United States Merchant Marine Academy, 71-68, at Liebertz Gym on Wednesday night.

The Mariners (8-12, 4-7) led by two at the break, but 15 second-half points from Reali gave the Bears back-to-back victories.

How It Happened
The Bears found themselves down 7-4 early but back-to-back triples from Reali and rookie Chris Edwards (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) put them ahead 10-7 with 16:31 on the clock. SJC followed with an 11-4 spurt for an 11-point lead off of a Chris Mikos (Freehold, N.J./Saint John Vianney) bucket halfway through the period.

USMMA then got hot and proceeded on a 17-4 rally of their own to retake the lead after Dante Pina finished in the paint with seven minutes to go in the frame. The rest of the half was closely contested and the Mariners even led by five with 30 ticks left but Reali buried a last-second three cutting the deficit to 40-38 after one.

Mikos took a steal and slammed a dunk on the other end of the court as part of 10 unanswered points for the Bears to open the second leading to a 48-40 edge. St. Joseph's held the Mariners off for the next few minutes, but Pina drove into the Bears' defense once again for two cutting the deficit to 51-49 just under the 13-minute mark.

Reali answered right back with a trey as the Bears never allowed the hosts back on top for the rest of the night extending the lead to nine (65-56) with five-and-a-half to play on a tip-in from Stephane Etheart (Hollis, N.Y./St. Francis Prep). However, the Mariners cut it to three with 1:36 left, but neither side scored for the remainder of the game as the Bears held on.

For the Bears

• Reali shot 10-20 and 6-12 from deep and added two assists and two boards to his game-high 26.
• Mikos had 14 points and five rebounds on 6-11 shooting while senior forward Kavan Meiner (Staten Island, N.Y./Susan Wagner) chipped in an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double.
• Both Edwards and Etheart had eight points and Stephane grabbed eight caroms as well.

Next Up
A return to The Hill Center hosting Farmingdale State College on Saturday (Feb. 8) at 3 p.m. with live stats and video at SJCBears.com/live.