MIDDLETOWN, PA – The St. Joseph's University, New York – Brooklyn men's basketball team battled all the way to the end of their Sunday afternoon game against Immaculata University and came up short in overtime against the Mighty Macs, losing 84-80. The Bears clawed their way back from deficits as large as 12 and forced overtime with critical plays down the stretch before they fell by the narrow margin.
Junior Colin Mills (White Plains, N.Y.) and sophomore Jacob Idowu (Wiesbaden, Germany) both led the team in scoring with 18 points. Mills found his way to 16 points in the second half and overtime periods, including three clutch free throws that initially tied the score up at 69 with less than a minute remaining in regular time. Idowu was just as central to the Bears' play in the game's late stages. He scored 11 of his points in the second half, including the game-tying lay-in with 11 seconds remaining that wound up sending the two teams to overtime.
Playing in their second games of the Penn State Harrisburg Tip-Off Classic, Immaculata and the Bears traded hot starts. The Mighty Macs found the net on their first three looks at the basket, and St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) matched, connecting on five of their first six possessions on their way to an early lead, 10-6. Immaculata did not stay behind for long and soon took control of the game's early play thanks to an 11-1 run that had the Mighty Macs up by six, 17-11. Their lead stretched all the way to 12 during the first part of the opening half, until the Bears began to roar back. St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) outscored their opponents 12-4 over the final five minutes in the half and cut Immaculata's lead to two, 34-32, at the break. Sophomore Timothy Richardson (Ozone Park, N.Y.) ended the half on a personal 5-0 run to help the Bears close their way in, and junior Maven Cummings (Brooklyn, N.Y.) led the team with 10 points at the half.
St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) continued their roll at the start of the second half, and first went ahead and then up by three on back-to-back baskets by sophomore Justin Munson (Middle Village, N.Y.). Though, following a similar script, Immaculata settled in to regain the lead and gradually pushed away from there. With eight minutes left in the game, the Mighty Macs were up by nine and seeming in control. Mills and Idowu's outsized efforts in the second half kept the Bears in it, and they were joined by senior Nazareth Warren (Brooklyn, N.Y.) at the head of the team's late-game push. After an Idowu lay-up, St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) cut Immaculata's lead to two, 65-63, with just over four minutes remaining. A later steal by Warren and another lay-in by Idowu brought the Bears to within one, 67-66, and Mills and Idowu's big scores in the closing minute wound up forcing overtime. Immaculata outlasted the Bears in the extra period by playing through senior forward Samuel Jankowski, who scored four points in overtime and led all scorers with 20 in the game.
Warren (12) and Cummings (10) were the other Bears joining Mills and Idowu in double-digits. The Bears held advantages in points off turnovers (+12) and points in the paint (+6) and used both to offset the Mighty Macs accurate three-point shooting in the second half.
The narrow loss drops the Bears to 0-2 following their season-opening appearance in PSU Harrisburg's Tip-Off Classic. They return home for their next game, a non-conference match-up against their Clinton Hill neighbors Pratt Institute, on Tuesday, November 10. Tip-off from The Hill Center will be at 6:00 p.m.
