The men's basketball team lost 66-63 to the Golden Eagles of St. Joseph's College of Patchogue on Thursday afternoon in the ARC Arena.

The visitors from the Skyline Conference started strong jumping out to a 28-12 lead with 7:43 left in the first half.

The Bearcats battled back scoring the last eight points to enter halftime trailing 36-28.

The Golden Eagles also started the second half strong scoring the first nine points to jump ahead 45-28.

They later owned a 62-47 lead with 6:29 left and appeared in control, but at this point the Bearcats offense came alive going on a furious rally scoring 15 straight points to level it at 62-62 with just 2:20 remaining.

Emil Purisic was 6-for-6 in free throws during this run that was complimented with threes by Liam Sanborn, Jehmehl Fair, and Adnan Bajrami to contribute to tying the game.

Unfortunately, the Golden Eagles scored four of the last five points in the final 1:17 to record the competitive three-point non-conference victory.

The Bearcats struggled from the field shooting 34 percent (19-for-56), but used solid defense with eight steals to score 15 points off 15 turnovers by the Golden Eagles.

Sanborn led the way with 17 points (4-for-9 3fg), while Purisic recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Fair had 10 points and four steals
 
Alex Tabot was tops for the visitors from Long Island with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

The Bearcats are scheduled to next return to action on Friday, January 7, with a CUNYAC road contest at CCNY.

Please note the CUNYAC home basketball doubleheader against York College has been rescheduled from Tuesday, January 4 to Monday, January 10, with women at 5:30 p.m. and men at 7:30 p.m.