NEW YORK, N.Y. (February 6, 2013) – Senior guard Sheldon Jones (Queens, N.Y.) scored a game-high 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting to power the 25th-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology men's basketball team to a 70-67 win at Baruch College Wednesday night.

With the win, the Ducks improve to 18-3, while Baruch drops to 15-8 with the loss.

The Ducks jumped out to a 12-6 lead 6:18 into the first half, and after the Bearcats cut the margin to one with five-straight points, Stevens reeled off seven in a row to go up 19-11 with 11:15 to play in the opening period. Baruch came right back to get within three points (23-20) with less than five minutes to play in the half, but the Ducks closed with an 11-2 run and took a 34-22 lead into the intermission. Sophomore forward Patrick Sabatino (Westfield, N.J.) started the spurt with a put-back, Jones scored three-straight buckets and freshman guard Evan Klimchak (Readington, N.J.) nailed a three as time expired.

Baruch, playing at home and in front of a crowd of 1,500 people for its 'Battle of Lexington' game, answered the bell in the second half to quickly get within four points at 37-33 after a three-point play from freshman guard Raymond De La Cruz (Bronx, N.Y.).

Senior guard Russ Thompson (West Orange, N.J.) started a 6-1 run to give the Ducks some breathing room and quiet the crowd for the moment, but minutes later, a De La Cruz three-pointer had the hosts back within three points at the 14:24 mark.

The Ducks were able to stay calm and got big shots and big plays when they needed them. Klimchak found sophomore forward Kenny Gan (Hillsborough, N.J.) for a layup and two free throws from Jones  quickly pushed their edge back to seven as the Ducks would lead by at least four and never more seven for the next several minutes.

With the score at 54-50, Stevens scored six unanswered on the back of three-pointers from Jones and junior forward Kevin McManamy (Charlotte, N.C.) to get its lead back to double digits with 7:34 to play, but the Bearcats would not quit and fought back to get the lead down to four with 4:09 left.

At the 2:41 mark a layup from junior forward Joshua Vital (Hempstead, N.Y.) made it a 68-65 game and after several empty possessions for both sides, another Vital layup made it 68-67 with 1:07 left.

Jones got to the line and hit one of his two attempts with 41 seconds remaining on the next Stevens possession, and the Ducks held down Baruch on its next chance as junior guard Matt Skrelja (Clark, N.J.) grabbed a big rebound. Skrelja hit 1-of-2 at the line with 14 seconds left and Stevens was able to clamp down on Baruch's final possession, not allowing a chance at the rim thanks to a tipped pass.

The Bearcats shot 43.1 percent for the game and were 8-for-18 from three. They converted 15 of their 24 attempts at the line and grabbed 31 rebounds compared 28 for Stevens. De La Cruz scored a team-high 11 points and had four rebounds, with Vital scoring 10 and grabbing nine boards.

Jones had 29 points and two rebounds and Thompson tallied 14 points and two boards as well. Sabatino finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks, while Gan totaled four points, seven boards, two assists and two blocks. Skrelja had two points, four assists, six rebounds and two steals, while Klimchak totaled six points and a pair of helpers. McManamy had five points, a rebound, an assist and one block in just five minutes off the bench.

The Ducks shot 53.2 percent for the game and were 6-for-12 from three-point range. They hit 14-of-19 at the line and had five blocks and five steals as a team.

Stevens will return home to host Elmira College Friday night and Ithaca College Saturday afternoon. Friday will be Senior Night and Saturday will be Alumni Day. Both games will be webcast live at www.Empire8.TV.

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