Men’s Basketball Eliminated from Skyline Championship in First-Round Loss to Old Westbury

Written by Andrew Capitelli (SJC-LI Sports Information)

Old Westbury, NY| Senior Fernando Vazquez scored a team-best 17 points as the St. Joseph's College (L.I.) men's basketball team saw its 2016-17 season come to an end in a 69-61 loss to SUNY Old Westbury in the first round of the Skyline Conference playoffs on Tuesday evening.

The sixth seeded Golden Eagles finish the year with a 10-16 mark as the third seeded Panthers, who will play at Sage in the conference semifinals, improve to 18-8.

Vazquez's 17 points came via 6-13 shooting from the field and 4-5 shooting from the charity stripe. Fellow senior Dan Nappi shot 4-6 from three and contributed 13 points.

Freshman Joe Santoro was the only other Golden Eagle that scored in double digits having collected 10 points on 3-5 shooting.

Old Westbury's Jamail Stanley led all scorers with 26 points (9-13 FG) in the contest.

The Panthers scored the game's first four points but a respondent 9-4 run by SJC—capped off by a Vazquez three-pointer—saw the guests take a five-point lead (9-4) at 13:24.

With 9:48 to play in the first half the teams played to a 15-15 tie, but it was the Panthers that took control of the game with a 13-3 run that saw them go up 28-18 at 3:56 before taking a six-point lead (33-27) into the break.

Stanley's three-pointer at 14:26 reestablished the hosts' 10-point lead (45-35) but preceded SJC's 10-1 run—which featured a Santoro three-point-play—that brought the Golden Eagles back to within one point (46-45) with 11:46 remaining in regulation.

Behind again at 8:54, this time by eight (55-47), SJC's Vazquez sank a three-pointer before junior Isaiah Moore converted on a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game (55-52).

Nappi's three with 3:31 to play again brought the guests one possession way from the lead (61-59), but it was the closest St. Joseph's would get as Old Westbury tallied 10 of the game's final 12 points to clinch the 69-61 victory.

The defeat marked the end of four SJC seniors' careers, including guard Andy Laurent who graduates third all-time in career points (1,566) and top-10 in rebounds, assists, three-pointers and steals.

Vazquez, who became the 13th player in program history to score 1,000 career points earlier this season, wraps his career seventh all-time in scoring with 1,099 points.

Also graduating are guards Max DeMartino and Dan Nappi, the latter of which caps off his career with four double-digit point performances in his final five games.