Staten Island, NY | In a record-setting Tournament of Heroes contest, the first-ever double-overtime game in the 18-year history of the tournament ended in the College of Staten Island's favor, as they were able to outlast visiting Curry College, 103-98, to secure a return trip to the Championship leg of the tourney tomorrow afternoon.  CSI will face Wheaton College (Mass.), an 88-75 winner over Bridgewater College earlier in the evening that kicked off tournament play.

Serving to honor the memory of former Dolphins Terrance Aiken, Scott Davidson, and Tom Hannafin, who died during the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the 18th Annual Tournament of Heroes saw the Dolphins defending the championship for only the third time in history, and despite winning for a huge stretch of the game, the Dolphins struggled in the waning moments and seemed all but done for in the first overtime before a comeback of their own tied the score to send the game into double-overtime.  There, the Dolphins pulled comfortably enough ahead to improve to 4-6 overall, while Curry, losers of six-straight, dropped to 3-6 overall.

CSI seemed destined for a big win when they stormed out of the gate to the tune of an 8-0 lead over the game's first two-plus minutes.  Adeola Latunji scored the game's first six points, in what was a career night for the senior.  The Colonels responded favorably with an 8-3 bender to cut the lead to 11-8, and later, a Kieran Carroll lay-up closed the gap to 12-10.  Still, in a recurring theme of seemingly the entire game, Curry could not come full circle, and they would cut the lead to a single possession on four more occasions in the first half, only to see the Dolphins pull comfortably ahead in response each time.

After going up by as many as 10 points, 23-13, on a three-pointer by Chris Velasquez, a Daymeann Stewart  response was able to cut the lead later to 27-22.  The three-ball continued to be a focus the rest of the way, and CSI used an Austin Mick three to take a 44-38 lead into halftime.

CSI would grow the lead in the early stages of the second to 11 points on five occasions and another Mick bucket secured CSI their biggest lead, 64-51, with 12:23 to go.  Still, the Dolphins seemed to keep the door open for Curry, and could not seem to take advantage of a few more possessions to grow the lead.  After Latunji hit a jumper in the lane to go up, 71-60, with 7:24 left, the Colonels made their move, and they would piece together a numbing 15-2 run over the next five minutes to shock the crowd and take a 75-73 lead with 2:48 to play, their first lead of the game.  The three continued to pay dividends, as Curry hit three in the run, one by RJ Hadfield and two by Jared Thorpe-Johnson.

Needing a lift, the Dolphins got it when Velasquez canned a three for CSI, and after a Curry miss, CSI went up by three on a Mick inside drive.  Thorpe-Johnson would respond again to cut the lead to one, 78-77, before two free-throws by Joseph Zieris put CSI up 80-77, with just 41 ticks to go.  After peeling away 20 seconds of the shot clock, Thorpe-Johnson found himself open on the arc and buried another three, his fifth, to knot the score at 80-80.  After a CSI timeout, The Dolphins had an opportunity to close the game but would turn the ball over, and at the buzzer, Stewart would miss a half-court three to send the game into overtime.

CSI would score the first bucket of the extra stanza, but a three from Angelo Sardegna  followed by yet another from Thorpe-Johnson, gave Curry their biggest lead, 86-82, with 3:29 to go.  CSI followed with a turnover and in an important swing in the game, Curry failed on four-straight attempts to grow the lead, then turned the ball over and missed an open three while CSI struggled as well.  With 31 seconds to go, the Colonels were in the driver's seat with an 89-85 lead and possession.  Curry, however would miss a free throw, and Latunji raced the other way to score a lay-up with 22 seconds left to cut the lead to 89-87.  With the ball again, Latunji forced a Sardegna turnover and Rigaud Destime drove the distance to tie the score seven seconds later.  Another turnover by Curry gave CSI back the ball again, but Destime would miss an off-balance layup from the baseline to send the game into double-overtime tied at 89-89.

With momentum from the previous extra stanza, CSI raced out for the first four points of the fourth period, lay-ups by Latunji and Destime.  Zieris would add another in response to a Curry basket and the teams traded another basket each sending the game into the final two minutes with CSI up 97-93.  After two missed Colonel free-throws, Destime was then sent to line and grew the lead to 99-93 with 1:18 to go.  Down to inside of a minute again, Curry got a big three, this time by Stewart on a follow up to a missed layup to make it 99-96, with 58 seconds to go.  The game turned again when CSI turned the ball over on the next possession, by Curry failed to capitalize and Spencer Feng would turn it over.  Forced to foul, Destime hit one of two shots with 19 seconds to play off of an intentional foul to make it 100-96, and then Latunji added another free-throw, his 38th point, the most in Tournament of Heroes history to ice the game.  Destime would add two more late free-throws following a Thorpe-Johnson basket to make it 103-98 as a final.

On top of the all-time high in points, the 38 markers were also a career-best for Latunji, who added 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and a career-high six blocks.  Zieris, who fouled out after 47 minutes, added 17 points and a team-high 12 rebounds, while Mick and Andrew Kartalis finished with 13 points apiece and Destime finished with 12 points.  CSI shot 54.3% in the game (38-70), despite just a 7-21 clip from long-range and a 20-29 performance from the charity stripe.  Curry was led by Thorpe-Johnson's 34 points, tied for the second-highest single game point total in Tournament of Heroes history, adding five rebounds.  Carroll, who fouled out after a little less than 40 minutes, posted 19 points, and tied a Tournament record with 19 rebounds.  Stewart also added 19 points.  The Colonels finished with 17 three-pointers (17-38, 44.7%), and shot 48.1% overall (38-79).  Both teams committed 20 turnovers and 42 rebounds apiece.  CSI's 103 points scored were the second-highest point total in a Tournament of Heroes contest as well.  CSI's 25 assists in the game were also second-highest all-time, and their 10 total blocks ranked third all-time.

*****

With the win, CSI will face off against Wheaton College, which led most of the way in an 88-75 winner over Bridgewater in the opener tonight.  The Lyons broke open an early stalemate and never looked back after a 40-32 halftime edge. 

Aaron Williams was sensational for Wheaton, scoring 29 points on 14-18 shooting in an abbreviated 27 minutes of action.  Fellow big man Robby Lowey was also crisp, adding 15 points and a team-high 13 rebounds.  Alex Dubrow, after going 0-8 from the floor in the first half, finished the contest with 13 points and a game-high 10 assists.  For Bridgewater, they were led by the hot hand of Davrion Grier, who finalized with 25 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.  Wheaton shot 45.3% from the field while Bridgewater finished at 39.1%.  Wheaton out-rebounded Bridgewater, 47-45, and Wheaton was a +4 in the turnover column, 19-15.

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