McCarthy & Laurent Lead SJC to Win Over Farmingdale and Skyline Tourney Berth
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Farmingdale State (17-7, 13-4 SKY) | 32 | 33 | 65 |
|
St. Joseph's (L.I.) (8-16, 7-10 SKY) | 26 | 43 | 69 |
Patchogue, N. Y. – St. Joseph's men's basketball team pulled off a clutch, 69-65, upset of the Farmingdale State Rams to clinch a Skyline Conference Tournament playoff berth in front of a raucous home "Support Your Sports Night" crowd. A Sean McCarthy three-pointer put the Golden Eagles ahead for good at 65-63 with 43 seconds remaining in the game, and he sank two free throws in the final seconds to seal the deal.
Freshman guard Andy Laurent's nine points in the last five minutes were enough to hold off the third place Farmingdale Rams, while the Eagles overcame Mt. St. Vincent for the final Skyline Tournament slot via a tiebreaker. The Eagles will be the #6-seed and earn a rematch with #3-seed Farmingdale next Tuesday in Farmingdale.
McCarthy, a junior guard, led all scorers with 22 points for St. Joseph's, with all six of his of his field goals coming from three-point range. Laurent scored 20 for the Golden Eagles and junior forward Darryl Charles had 14 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks and four steals.
St. Joseph's trailed the contest 32-26 at the half but was relentless in the second half and showed a lot of fight down the stretch. They were down by as many as 11 in the half but chipped away from around the 15-minute mark. SJC finally tied the score 46-46 at 10:25 on a free throw by junior guard Nick Gallina, who had five assists. Farmingdale kept pulling ahead of the Eagles over the next nine minutes but the Eagles tied the game on six separate occasions to keep the pressure on before finally grabbing the lead on Laurent's free throws with 3:50 left. From there, the team's traded buckets before McCarthy's final big three and clutch free throws from him and Laurent.
Donald Lewis led Farmingdale with 21 points and 15 rebounds. Justin Bailey chipped in with 17 points for the Rams.
St. Joseph's will conclude the regular season against nationally ranked No. 16 Purchase College at home this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. in the Danzi Center.
