Farmingdale, NY - The College of Mount Saint Vincent's men's basketball team took their Wednesday night road trip in stride, as the Dolphins went on to defeat Old Westbury in an all-important South Division Skyline showdown. CMSV mounted an impressive second half comeback, forced overtime and came up with enough key plays to head back to Riverdale with a 79-76 win in their pocket.
The Dolphins are now 2-3 against the conference, good for fourth in the standings.
Over the first 10 minutes of the first half, it was a back and forth affair between the Dolphins and Panthers.
James Mooney's offense was led by
Dan Porcic and
DJ Tucker, with the duo combining for the first 12 points of the game. Sean Goowin's converted free throw attempt would make it 15-14 in favor of CMSV, but that would be the last time the Dolphins would be on top for the remainder of the half. Old Westbury would respond and go on an 11-4 run to bring their lead to eight points with less than 10 minutes to go.
To the Dolphins' credit, they continued to chip away at the deficit. Tucker,
Adrian Rraci and
Joshua Cabezudo would all score points to make it a one possession came, but the Panthers would eventually enter halftime up 10 points.
The second half saw a serious uptick in production from CMSV's offense. It was the Porcic and Cabezudo show early on, as the duo would score nine straight points to open play. Despite the run, the Panthers would respond, making it a seven point game at the 17:31 mark. Sophomore
Dillon Hod and freshman
George Mejia would generate contact and five of six from the charity stripe, which was then followed up by a Tucker jumper that would tie the game at 49.
CMSV forced Old Westbury to turn it over four times in a five minute span that saw the contest remain a one possession game. From that point until the buzzer, it turned into the Cabezudo show. The Perth Amboy, New Jersey native scored 12 of the team's final 17 points, which put Tucker in the position to tie the game with six seconds left to force overtime. Tucker would go on to score four of the first six points in the extra time, leading to Cabezudo icing the game by going seven of eight from the free throw line.
Cabezudo ended his night with a season-high 27 points on an efficient nine of 14 shooting to go along with five rebounds and four assists. In what has become a theme, Tucker stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, nine boards, three assists and a pair of steals while Porcic would finish four of seven from three, good for 16 points of his own. Hod and Mejia would aid defensively and on the boards, combining for 13 rebounds while Hod knocked down five of six free throws.
The Dolphins will look to carry their momentum into a weekend matchup against Mount Saint Mary College, who come to the Sharp Center on Saturday afternoon.
