NEW YORK – After trailing by as many as 21 points, the City College of New York men's basketball team had the ball and a chance to tie in the waning seconds on Friday night.  However, the Beavers (0-8, 0-1 CUNYAC) were unable to get a shot off and fell to John Jay (6-1, 2-0 CUNYAC) by a 76-74 count in their CUNY Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) opener at Nat Holman Gymnasium.

An Isaiah Williams (Bronx, NY) layup brought CCNY within two at 75-73 with 10 seconds remaining, then John Jay's Romello Ford went 1-for-2 at the free throw line.  Romello Rashad (New York, NY) grabbed the rebound on Ford's second shot and was immediately fouled.  He sank the first and missed the second, making it a 76-74 game.  Rashad pulled down another rebound after Kyle LaGuardia missed a pair of free throws on the other end, but the Bloodhounds' Jayson Brower intercepted a pass at the buzzer to give John Jay the win.

John Jay scored the first five points of the game and opened up a 21-point edge, 43-22, with 2:47 left in the first half.  CCNY responded with a 12-2 run to pull within 11 at 45-34, but a Brower tip-in as time expired gave the Bloodhounds a 47-34 advantage at the break.

Angel Rivera hit a layup to put John Jay in front 51-34 with 18:29 remaining before Daniel Piszczatowski (Middle Village, NY) began the Beavers' comeback effort with a jumper on the other end.  That started a 13-0 CCNY run over the next four minutes, as the Beavers trimmed their deficit to four points, 51-47.

The Bloodhounds pushed their lead back to nine points at 60-51 midway through the period, but a Williams jumper and an Austin Volkens (Brooklyn, NY) trey brought the Beavers within four, 60-56, with 9:10 left.  CCNY tied the score at 63-63 on an Isaiah Denard (Staten Island, NY) jumper at the 7:08 mark, and the margin would be no more than four points the rest of the way.  The Beavers, however, never took the lead, as John Jay, the CUNYAC preseason favorites, held on for the win.

Yassine Sakhi (New York, NY) had his third successive double-double for the Beavers.  He finished with 24 points and a career-high 16 rebounds while also handing out six assists.  Denard tallied 14 points and seven boards, while Volkens contributed 13 points off the bench in his season debut.  Romello corralled eight rebounds and added three steals.  The Beavers shot 46.7 percent (28-of-60) from the field, 18.2 percent (4-of-22) from long range, and 77.8 percent (14-of-18) at the charity stripe.

Brower led the Bloodhounds with 24 points while also notching eight rebounds, three assists and four steals.  Doug Levy collected 10 points, including the 1,000^th of his career, and added 12 rebounds to complete a double-double.  LaGuardia also recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 boards, while Rivera finished with 15 points and three steals.  As a team, John Jay shot 41.2 percent (28-of-68) from the floor, 22.2 percent (4-of-18) from downtown, and 59.3 percent (16-of-27) at the free throw line.

CCNY continues a busy stretch of four games in eight days with a 12 p.m. visit to Maritime (3-4) on Sunday.