Gators Bite Eagles in Second Consecutive Skyline Defeat

Albany, N.Y. - St. Joseph's men's basketball team visited the Sage Gators Tuesday evening in the Gators' Skyline Conference home opener and dropped their second conference game of the young season, 78-63.  Sage improved to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the league, while SJC drops to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

Sage held a 37-34 lead at the break and the second half was tight as there were three ties and three lead changes. Sage would go ahead for good at the 5:07 mark, 60-59 on a layup by junior guard Mason Horne (Albany, N.Y./LaSalle Institute). Sage increased the lead to 15 in the final tally as five different players finished in double-digit scoring on the night. Horne lead all Sage players with his 18 points, while junior point guard Jeff Stopera (Scotia, N.Y./Scotia Glenville) had a personal-best 17 point after making 6-of-10 from the floor and handing out five assists. 

Senior center Ryan Sager (Stuyvesant, N.Y./Ichabod Crane) tallied a double-double with 13 point and 17 rebounds, just one shy of tying his career best of 18 boards.  Freshman forward Melvin Ford (Voorhees, N.J./Eastern Regional) tied his personal-best as well in his first career start as he had 11 points with five rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

Rounding out Sage's double-digit scorers was senior forward Matt Farbotko (Rouses Point, N.Y./Northeastern Clinton) as he had 10 points with eight rebounds. He now has 926 career points.

SJC's sophomore forward Jordan Kowalski (North Babylon, N.Y./Abilene (TX) led all players with his 23 points, including 12 in the first half. He also added three blocks in the action. Junior forward Cody Lohsen (Centereach, N.Y./Centereach) had 11 points, while junior forward Keith Anderson (Central Islip, N.Y./North Babylon) just missed a double-double as he had 10 rebounds with nine points.

For the game, Sage shot 50.0% from the floor (29-58), while holding the Golden Eagles to just a 35.8% showing (24-67) and also held a narrow 44-40 edge on the boards.

Next up for St. Joseph's is a non-conference home game on December 7 at 8 p.m. featuring St. Joseph's-Brooklyn.  This will be part of the annual "East vs. West" tripleheader with women's basketball and women's swimming each taking on the SJC Brooklyn Bears.

(Recap Summary Courtesy of Sage Sports Information)