Farmingdale State - 88, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy - 76
KINGS POINT, N.Y. | Senior swingman
Nick Hurowitz (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) led all players with 30 points and a career-high-tying 16 rebounds Tuesday night, sending the Farmingdale State College men's basketball team to its 15th-consecutive victory with an 88-76, Skyline Conference win at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
The visiting Rams' (19-1, 11-0 Skyline) shot 11-of-22 from 3-point range on the night, and nearly doubled up the Mariners (8-12, 5-6) with a 43-22 rebounding margin.
First-half action featured seven ties and nine lead changes, with USMMA pulling even on a jump shot with 2:09 left before the intermission at 34-34. Senior
Corey Powell (Valley Stream, N.Y.) registered a conventional 3-point play for Farmingdale State with 1:33 remaining, before classmate and fellow Valley Stream native
Aaron Davis knocked down a 3-pointer before the buzzer to push the visitors ahead by a 40-34 count. Hurowitz collected his double-double by halftime, notching 16 points and 11 boards in the opening session.
After the Mariners opened the second-half scoring with a basket on their first possession, FSC scored eight-straight points to push ahead, 48-36, when Hurowitz put home a layup two minutes in. USMMA used an 8-0 spread to cut its deficit to 50-46 with more than 14 minutes to go, before pulling to within a 61-58 margin with 9:52 on the clock. Powell's trifecta one minute later started an 8-2 run for the Rams, and when sophomore point guard
Michael Notias (Manhasset, N.Y.) knocked down his only long-range effort of the night at the 7:52 mark, his side was back in front by double figures, at 69-59. The Mariners closed to within a 77-70 score with 3:45 remaining, before Powell's pair at the free-throw line in the next FSC trip down the court started a run of six unanswered points to put the game out of reach. Freshman forward
Liam Buckley (Manhasset, N.Y.) was true on a reverse layup with 2:35 showing, before Hurowitz spun on the right block to lay home his 30th point of the evening 73 seconds before the final horn.
Hurowitz (12-of-20 FG, 4-of-7 3FG) and Powell (20 points, 7-of-13 FG) led a quartet of Farmingdale State players to score in double figures, with Davis and senior point guard
Jevon Santos (Elmont, N.Y.) contributing 12 and 10, respectively.
The team's 15-game winning streak is tied for the second-longest in program history (Dec. 15, 2007-Feb. 16, 2008), trailing only the 20-game run by FSC's 2008-09 outfit that advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship.
Head coach
Brendan Twomey's FSC squad is next in Skyline play Saturday night (Feb. 3) at 8:30 p.m., in an important match-up on the road at Yeshiva University (10-1 Skyline) in Manhattan. The two sides lead the Skyline's Black and Gold Divisions, respectively, with the winner of this weekend's tilt holding an upper hand in the race for the top seed in the 2024 Skyline Conference Men's Basketball Championship.
