Laurent Leads Men’s Basketball Past USMMA on Tuesday

Written by Andrew Capitelli (SJC-LI Sports Information)

Kings Point, NY| Behind a 22-point performance from senior Andy Laurent the St. Joseph's College (L.I.) men's basketball team knocked off the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy for a 64-59 road victory on Tuesday evening.

With the win the Golden Eagles improve to 4-11 on the year and 3-4 in Skyline Conference play as the Mariners slip to 5-11 (2-6 Skyline).

Laurent's 22 points came off 7-13 shooting from the field and was bested only by Matt Miller's 33 points for USMMA.

Also reaching double-digits for the Golden Eagles were freshmen Joe Santoro and Frank Basile who both tallied 10 points each. For Basile it's the fourth-straight game in which the Islip, NY native has scored in double-digits.

USMMA took early 5-2, 10-6 and 16-13 leads but SJC remained with the hosts every step of the way and tied the game at 16 at 8:34 before taking the lead (19-16) moments later.

After going up 36-30 a pair of converted free throws by Basile with six seconds remaining guaranteed the guests went into the break ahead by eight (38-30).

The Mariners would inch back into the game and cut the deficit to three points (54-51) after Miller sank a three-ball with 4:23 to play in regulation, but Santoro would go on to score the next five points to restore the Golden Eagles' eight-point lead and pave the way for a 64-59 victory.

SJC was by far the better shooting team having outshot the Mariners 48.8% to 34.5% from the field and 40.0% to 25.0% from three, but USMMA did hold the advantage from the charity stripe (81.0%-66.7%).

Key to SJC's success was scoring from the bench where they found 23 of their 64 points.

The Golden Eagles return to action on Friday, January 20 when they host Skyline rival SUNY Maritime inside the Danzi Center at 7:00 PM. Live video and stats will be available here.