Men’s Basketball Extends Streak to Four in Overtime Thriller Over SJC Long Island

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball hosted St. Joseph's College (Long Island) for the second meeting between the two teams on Tuesday night and slugged it out for a 68-64 overtime win in front of a packed house at The Hill Center. Stephane Etheart (Hollis, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) recorded a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double and scored the go-ahead baskets in overtime and Kavan Meiner (Staten Island, N.Y./Susan Wagner) paced the Bears with 16 points.

It is the Bears fourth straight win in the all-time series with SJC Long Island and their fourth straight win in their current win streak. It was also the fourth overtime game of the season for SJC Brooklyn, posting a 3-1 record in those games. How It Happened

A back-and-forth first half saw the Golden Eagles (3-9, 2-6 Skyline) and the Bears (5-8, 4-5 Skyline) scrap and claw for any bit of a lead. With 6:45 left in the first half, Long Island's center Brad Weiss put back his own missed jumper to start off a 10-3 run that would give the Golden Eagles a seven-point lead, 25-18, the largest lead for either team in the first half.

The Bears cut the deficit to three on a pair of Frank Reali (Staten Island, N.Y./Susan Wagner) free throws, but a Matt Hirdt triple sent Long Island into the lockers with a 30-24 lead. The Bears picked up six steals in a seven-minute span at the beginning of the second half to start chipping away at the deficit. Trailing by eight, Brooklyn an 8-0 spurt capped by a Bryan Medy (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth Regional) theft and layup that tied the game at 37-all with 13:49 to play. The visitors built a brief 42-38 lead before the Bears unleashed 14-0 run over four minutes sparked by five straight points from Matt McQuillen (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) and capped off by a stepback three-pointer by Reali to push the lead to 10 points, 52-42, the largest lead of the game for the Bears.

The Golden Eagles responded holding the Bears scoreless for five minutes, cutting the lead to just one point. The rival campuses would go back and forth over the final three minutes of regulation, Brooklyn taking a two-point lead on three occasions, only to be matched by Long Island. With the game knotted up at 60-60, the Golden Eagles had the final possession with four ticks left but were unable to get off a game-winning attempt in the final seconds and the Bears went to overtime for the second straight game.

Brooklyn clamped down on defense in the overtime period, holding the Golden Eagles to just 1-of-10 shooting from the field, while connecting on 3-of-6 on the opposite end. The final four points came from Etheart who powered a short jumper over three defenders with a 1:35 left to give the Bears the 66-64 lead. Following a missed LI three-point attempt, Medy grabbed the long rebound and pushed the ball up to Stephane again for the fast-break layup to ice the game with a final score, 68-64.

For the Bears

• Stephane Etheart finished with his second double-double outing of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

• Kavan Meiner recorded 16 points on an efficient 7-10 shooting from the field.

• Frank Reali added 14 points and five rebounds. He is averaging 17.5 points per game over the four-game streak.

Next Up For the Bears

The Bears play their second-straight home game on Thursday (1/10) hosting Sarah Lawrence College (7-5, 5-3 Skyline) looking to split the season series and match their longest win streak since the 2013-14 season. Live stats and video available at SJCBears.com.