Basile Powers Men’s Basketball Past Farmingdale in Regular Season Finale

Written by Andrew Capitelli (SJC-LI Sports Information)

Farmingdale, NY| Freshman Frank Basile scored a game-best 20 points as the St. Joseph's College (L.I.) men's basketball team toppled first-place Farmingdale State on the road in the final regular season contest of the season on Saturday afternoon.

With the win the Golden Eagles improve to 10-15 on the year and finish conference play with a 9-7 record, locking them in at the #6 seed in the Skyline Championships.

Despite the loss the Rams remain in first place for the time being with a 18-7 overall mark and a 14-2 conference record.

Basile, whose career-best 20 points came off 8-14 shooting from the field, grabbed five rebounds and dished out two assists on the afternoon.

Senior Andy Laurent contributed 15 points, junior Isaiah Moore went for 11 and freshman Joe Santoro added 10 off the bench.

Farmingdale was paced by George Riefenstahl who collected 16 points on 6-11 shooting.

A back-and-forth affair--a contest that saw the score tied six times with six different lead changes--the teams traded points through nearly the entire first half, but with the score tied at 27 with 1:59 to play, a three-pointer by Moore put SJC ahead and paved the way for the guests to take a four-point advantage (32-28) into the break.

At 15:09 of the second half the Golden Eagles held a nine-point lead (39-30) after Basile drained a three-ball, but Farmingdale then went on the offensive and scored 10 of the next 13 points to cut the deficit to two (42-40) at 9:11.

Laurent's three with 3:55 to play widened St. Joseph's lead to nine points (61-52) and from there out the Golden Eagles kept Farmingdale arm's length, maintaining leads of at least six points before claiming the 71-62 victory.

Key to success for SJC was edging Farmingdale in both three-point shooting (36.7%-27.3%) and free throw shooting (80.0%-64.3%). Additionally St. Joseph's held advantages in bench points (30-8) and points off turnovers (19-14).

As of Saturday afternoon SJC would visit SUNY Old Westbury in a Skyline first-round match-up on Tuesday evening. Old Westbury plays at Yeshiva on Saturday evening and could move into first place, creating a rematch scenario for St. Joseph's and Farmingdale in the first round on Tuesday.