NEWBURGH, N.Y.— The John Jay men's basketball team went on the road and beat the College of Mount Saint Mary 64-61 in the quarterfinal round of the 2013 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Metro Regional championship.
 
With the win, the Bloodhounds, who are the No. 5 seed in the eight team postseason tournament and are now 16-13 overall, advance into the semifinal round where they will face top seeded Richard Stockton College who beat No. 8 seeded Sage College to advance.
 
The Bloodhounds were led by Kris Owens with a team-high 17 points, including 15 in the first half which came via five three point field goals. Jamar Harry added 16 points in the win, while Michael Howard provided 15 off the bench. Oshea Alexander grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds and two blocked shots in the win.
 
The Knights were led by Joe Henain with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Donte Howell had seven points, nine assists and six steals.
 
The Bloodhounds opened the game cold as the host Knights started by taking a 13-4 lead with less than eight minutes gone by. In that time span, John Jay connected on just two of its first 10 shots to fall behind at the start.
 
Owens checked into the game at the 12:43 mark and sank five three point field goals over the remainder of the first half to ignite the Bloodhounds.  After falling behind by nine, John Jay went on a 19-0 run over the next five minutes to take the lead and pull away. John Jay was up 23-13 with 7:04 remaining after a three point field goal by Korede Griffith, who had seven points, seven rebounds and three steals in the victory.
 
During the run, John Jay made seven of its next eight shots to change the whole complexion of the contest.  And the Bloodhounds were not done once the Knights finally scored as John Jay also made the next three field goal attempts ending in a 10-for-11 spurt for an overall run of 29-6, as John Jay was ahead 33-19 with 4:08 to play in the first half.
 
The Bloodhounds capitalized on Mt. St. Mary's miscues and outscored the Knights 12-4 on points off turnovers in the first half. The Bloodhounds also had a 12-2 advantage in the first half on points in the paint before going into halftime with a 37-27 lead.
 
John Jay maintained a comfortable lead through the early stages of the second half. But the Knights cut into the lead midway through the stanza with a 14-4 run to erase a 10 point deficit and tie the game at 56-56 with 4:37 to go.


 But John Jay, who never trailed once it took the lead, answered with an 8-2 spurt give itself some distance. A jumper by Harry, followed by a pair of free throws by Howard, then a breakaway lay-up by Griffith put John Jay ahead 62-56 with 2:48 to go.  Then after the Knights connected on a field goal, Harry buried a lay-up to put the Bloodhounds ahead again by a half dozen with under thirty six seconds to go.
 
Mt. St. Mary's cut its deficit to three with a three point field goal with twenty seconds left before the game became even more climatic. The Knights stole the inbounds pass giving Mt. St. Mary's the ball with the shot clock turned off.
 
But the hosts missed two chances before Howard secured the rebound with one second left to secure the John Jay win.