Box Score
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - The D'Youville men's basketball team closed out the 2021 portion of their regular season schedule with an East Coast Conference clash at Staten Island. Searching for their first league win of the season, the Saints came up empty-handed, falling 96-62 to the Dolphins. Sunday's setback moves D'Youville to 1-11 overall and 0-4 in conference action.
Sophomore forward Chris Stineman got the Saints on the board first with a jumper but the Dolphins (3-7, 2-2 ECC) countered with back-to-back three-pointers before Stineman added his second bucket to cut the early deficit to 6-4. The Dolphins raced out to an 18-8 lead after a 12-4 scoring spurt that helped put the hosts in control early. Later in the half, the hot-shooting Dolphins nailed back-to-back threes once more to create a 16-point spread with seven minutes remaining in the half. Staten Island opened the game with seven first half three-pointers on 41-percent shooting from downtown. From the field, the Saints struggled to keep pace, only hitting on 30-percent of their field goals in the opening half as CSI shot 47-percent.
The Saints' offense improved to begin the final 20 minutes, hitting on five of their first 10 attempts in the second half but it wasn't enough to cut into the deficit as CSI opened up a 21-point advantage just six minutes into the half. A 7-3 run for the Saints helped cut the Dolphin lead back under 20 points freshman guard Nelson St. Louis connected on a jumper before freshman guard Mason Putnam scored back-to-back buckets for D'Youville, one of which was good from beyond the three-point arc.
Two Saints reached double figures to lead the team in scoring … Stineman paced D'Youville with 14 points (6-11 FG) as Putnam followed up with 10 points (4-10 FG, 2-4 3PT) of his own.
The Saints struggled to find the bottom of the net, shooting 35-percent from the field as a 14-percent (3-22 3PT) clip from three-point land held the Saints from making a comeback attempt … Staten Island had no problem on their home floor, knocking down 18 threes while shooting 47-percent from downtown while shooting 48-percent from the field.
The Saints won't return to action until 2022 when they host Daemen in ECC play on Jan. 8. Tip-off is set for noon at the College Center Gym.
The Daemen game can be seen on the ECC Network and the action can be followed on Live Stats. Make sure to follow the Saints on Instagram (@dycmbb) and Twitter (@DYOUVILLEMBB).
