John Jay College vs College of Staten Island (1/21/09)

The defending CUNYAC Men’s Basketball champions, John Jay College, have struggled this year to get back to their winning ways. However, last night looked like a blast from the past. Against the College of Staten Island Dolphins, at the “Doghouse” in Manhattan, the Bloodhounds from John Jay College dominated in all aspects of the game en route to a 70 to 48 victory. With only their fifth win of the season, the Bloodhounds came out in the first half firing on all cylinders and that became the difference in the game. Lead by senior guard, Godfrey Mascall and Junior guard Gary Brady; John Jay out rebounded, out scored and out played the Dolphins entire team in the first half. Listed at 5’8”, but really standing only 5’6 1/2” tall, Mascall was the smallest player on the court. But in this case size didn’t matter. Mascall came off the bench like a spark plug and provided a much needed offensive onslaught, shooting a perfect 7-7 from the field, also grabbing 3 rebounds and matching starter Gary Brady with 14 points. Together they made up for 28 of the team’s 40 first half points and with the rest of John Jay’s solid defense, CSI was held to only 7 total rebounds and 18 totals points in the half.
In a game where the two teams would combine for 7 technical fouls, 5 called against the winner, you would think the score would be much closer, indicating a battle. It turned out to just be high emotions and questionable calls by the referees that set off the barrage of technical foul calls. Luckily, these technical fouls didn’t affect the outcome at all and John Jay’s 22-point lead at halftime would hold up until the final buzzer, without much of any threat from the Dolphins. CSI did show a little fight with 5:18 left in the game, cutting the lead to 17, but John Jay extinguished that and finished off the game with an 11-6 run.
Mascall lead all scores with 22 points and was second in rebounding with 7 total. “We would like to see some more consistency from Godfrey (Mascall). He is capable of doing this every game”, said John Jay College coach, Charles Jackson after the game.
“But, Gary (Brady) and Godfrey can’t score 20 one night and then shoot 1-4 from the field the next game. We work on this in practice and they both need to not think so much about it, they need to just play”. Coach Jackson said of his two top scorers.
John Jay unfortunately was without their top player, Vaughn Mason, for the entire game and without their top rebounder, Chris Jaeger, for the first half. Coach Jackson feels that his team has the talent to repeat last year’s success, but injuries and inconsistencies have held them back. With only eight games left before the CUNYAC tournament, John Jay hopes to build off this impressive win and make some noise the rest of the way. With a record of 5-12, getting above .500 is still in their sights, as is another trophy.