Staten Island, NY  |  The College of Staten Island Men's Basketball Team earned their first victory of the season, also the program's first win over a Division II opponent as a D2 program, in tonight's home-opener against the Bears of New York Tech behind a career-high 33 points from Adeola Latunji and a tremendous shooting performance from nearly every player that saw the floor.  In addition to scoring 33, Latunji also reached the 1000-point mark in just his third season as a Dolphin.  With the victory, CSI improved to 1-3 on the season while New York Tech dropped to 0-6.

The Dolphins got off to a strong start early scoring the game's first eight points, five by Rigaud Destime and three more by Latunji.  New York Tech then answered back with the game's next nine points, five of those scored by Jeffrey Haden.  Joseph Zieris put CSI back in front with the second of twelve CSI three-pointers in the game before a pair of free throws by Latunji and a layup by Andrew Kartalis made it 15-9.

Trailing by six, the Bears wasted no time getting even once again as Hayden connected on his second three-pointer to make it 15-12 before a second consecutive make from beyond the arc by Opong Bramble evened the score.  In what was characteristic of a first-half full of scoring runs by both teams, the Dolphins rattled off five straight points including Latunji's second three-pointer.  With the made three, Latunji now had eight for the game and achieved a career milestone in the process as the made basket also gave him 1000 career points four games into his third season with the Dolphins.

Latunji was far from finished in the half as he would add another make from beyond the arc to put the Dolphins ahead 23-18 with just over eight minutes to play in the half.  Kartalis then extended CSI's lead to seven before a pair of Latunji free throws made it an eight-point game.  Two more Latunji free throws wrapped up a 9-0 Dolphins run which put CSI up 29-19, but the Dolphins would go on to outscore the Bears 12-8 over the next five minutes to take a 41-27 lead into the halftime locker room.

Of the twelve points CSI scored in the final minutes of the half, seven belonged to Latunji giving him 22 at the midway point.  Kartalis and Destime each scored seven with Zieris adding another five points.  Leading the way for the Bears was Hayden with both Collins Onyeike and DeJavaughn Utley scoring six.  The Bears shot well, 42.9% from the field in the half and 33.3% from beyond the arc, but CSI was even better hitting 48.1% from the floor and 58.3% from long-range.

Coming out of the halftime locker room, the two teams battled back and forth with CSI taking a double-digit lead into the game's final thirteen minutes.  Following a Dolphins miss, the Bears would grab back-to-back offensive rebounds before Hayden was finally able to finish inside to pull New York Tech back to within eight with 12:01 remaining.  However, this was as close as the Bears would get as the Dolphins pulled away behind three straight three-pointers, two by Kartalis and a third by Austin Mick.  This put the CSI up 20, their largest lead of the game.

The Bears wouldn't get any closer than fifteen the rest of the way as CSI continued their hot shooting down the stretch on their way to the 82-63 victory.  After a 22-point first half, Latunji finished the second half with 33 to set a new career scoring high.  Zieris also registered double-digits in the half despite getting into foul trouble and finished the game with fifteen.  Kartalis tallied 14 and Destime rounded out the list of Dolphins in double-figures with 11.  The Bears were led in scoring by Hayden who slowed down in the second half after a hot start, and Utley ultimately led the team in points with 15.  Most notably, the Dolphins had what was undoubtedly their best shooting performance of the season knocking down over 48% of their attempts from the field and 52% of their shots from downtown.

Next up for CSI is a meeting with Johnson & Wales at The Tank this Saturday at approximately 3 PM.  The game will be the second half of a doubleheader with the women taking on Post University in the early game set for a 1 PM tip-off.

---

GAME VIDEO:

---