Men’s Basketball Clinches Skyline Playoff Berth With Win on Senior Day

Written by Andrew Capitelli (SJC-LI Sports Information)

Patchogue, NY| Following Senior Day ceremonies that honored Max DeMartino, Andy Laurent, Dan Nappi and Fernando Vazquez, the St. Joseph's College (L.I.) men's basketball team earned a berth into the Skyline Conference Championship with a 71-54 victory over sister-school St. Joseph's College (Brkln) inside the Danzi Center on Tuesday evening.

With the win the Golden Eagles improve 9-14 on the year and 8-6 in conference play and move into the sixth seed in the conference playoff standings. SJC returns to the conference playoffs for the first time since the 2014-15 season when they were defeated by Sage in the conference championship game.

Laurent tallied a game-best 20 points on 8-15 shooting in the final home contest of his career. Fellow seniors Vazquez, DeMartino and Nappi tallied 16, five and 10 points, respectively, with the latter notching game- and career-bests in rebounds (10) and assists (7).

Junior Isaiah Moore contributed nine points and five assists.

SJC-Brooklyn took the first lead of the evening but the Golden Eagles went up for the first time at 14:52 when Nappi sunk a three to put the hosts up 7-4. From there the Golden Eagles compiled a 14-3 run to go up 21-7 at 11:19 before carrying a 36-26 lead into halftime.

The guests failed to register a point through the opening 5:46 of the second half and allowed SJC-Long Island to build a 20-point lead (46-26). At 12:34 a Laurent three-pointer put the Golden Eagles up 22 points--their largest lead of the contest--making way for a convincing 71-54 victory.

SJC-Long Island was the better shooting side from the field (49.1%-35.0%) and from beyond the arc (35.3%-18.2%), and also held advantages in rebounds (38-32) and points off turnovers (27-14).

Currently occupying the second wild card spot in the conference standings, SJC-Long Island would, as of Tuesday night, play SUNY Old Westbury in the first round of the playoffs, but the first wild card spot, held currently by Yeshiva University (9-5 Skyline), is still within reach.

The Golden Eagles return to action on Thursday, February 16 when they visit SUNY Old Westbury for a 6:00 PM contest. Live stat will be available here.