NEW YORK, NY – The Hunter College men's basketball team's hopes of remaining atop the CUNYAC North Division standings were dashed this evening, as the squad's efforts fell short against the visiting College of Staten Island Dolphins, 83-66 at the Hunter Sportsplex.

Tonight's matchup pitted North and South CUNYAC divisional foes against one another as CSI improves to 16-4 and 8-0 with its win to remain atop the South division. The Hawks drop to 9-10 overall and 4-3 in the CUNYAC North Division, sliding into second place.

Senior Anthony Uter registered 21 points and four rebounds to lead the Hawks while fellow senior Mark Courtien scored 15 in the Hawk's loss.

A back and forth contest ensued from the get go with Hunter unable to push ahead of the visitors as CSI sprinted out to a seven point lead.  The Hawks to battle back to within three points (16-13) on a John Akinyemi layup at 13:03 and then a layup by Uter at 9:50 tied the game (20-20) but CSI pushed ahead once more. This time, the Dophins established a six-point lead (26-20) before the Hawks surged back once more. Hunter knotted the game at 28-all with 5:37 to go but failed to push ahead as the Dolphins closed the half on a 14-3 run to take an 11-point lead into the half.  

CSI kept its offensive attack up in the second, and at 8:41, a Jordan Young layup gave the Dolphins a 17-point lead--the largest of the second half (73-49). Hunter would close the gap to 16 points on three occasions but failed to eclipse the hump as the Dolphins held on for the 83-66 victory.

Inspite of the loss, Hunter shot well, finishing the game 45% from the field and 40% from three-point range but couldn't contain the hot-handed Dolphins who shot 55% from the field this evening.

The Dolphins were led by Young who finished with 23 points while Bloochy Magloire added 21.

Hunter looks to return to its winning ways on Monday, January 30 when it hosts the City College of New York at 7pm.