No. 6 Blue Jays Pull Away From Saints Saturday, 79-60

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - The nationally-ranked No. 6 University of Saint Joseph (USJ) men's basketball team pulled away late from a well-disciplined Emmanuel College (EC) Saints team, 79-60, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) game inside the O'Connell Center Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Blue Jays clinched the GNAC regular season championship, and as a result, clinched a first-round bye and home-court advantage throughout the GNAC Tournament. The victory is the 23rd straight dating back to last season, and the 21st straight to start 2021-22 for USJ.

The Blue Jays win streak is the longest active streak in all of college basketball (Div I-III). USJ is one of two remaining undefeated teams in the nation (one in D-II), and also owns the longest active conference win streak in Division III at 30 straight. During the streak, USJ has won 21 of its last 22 games by double digits.

Senior guard Tyree Mitchell (East Hartford, Conn.) led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-15 field goals. Junior forward Jalen Samuels (Franklin, Mass.), who impacts the game in so many ways, put the full arsenal on display Saturday (11 Pts, 5 Stl, 4 Reb, 2 Ast & a charge). Senior guard Jaecee Martin (Hartford, Conn.) added 12 points and eight assists. The Saints were led by sophomore forward Eljay Morris (London, England), and sophomore guard Donte Pope (Middletown, Conn.), who scored 16 and 14 points respectively. Morris had his best game of the season and took it to one of the top field goal shooters in the nation in senior forward Jordan Powell (Middletown, Conn.).

After a neck-and-neck first half, the Blue Jays were able to maintain a 10-point lead in the second half. Emmanuel was consistent and kept it to 10 midway through the second, still very much alive in this one, but the Blue Jays finally wore down the visitors with an 18-7 run that spanned four-plus minutes of play to blow the game open.

GAME INFORMATION
Score: Emmanuel 70, Saint Joseph 89
Records: EMM 13-8 (9-6 GNAC), USJ 21-0 (16-0 GNAC)
Location: O'Connell Center | West Hartford Conn.

COACH QUOTE [Glen Miller]
"Congrats to our players; we are the GNAC regular-season champions with this win! Although we still have a lot of basketball to be played and more to accomplish, we need to take a breath and savor what we have achieved to this point in the season. It isn't easy to take everyone's best effort and come out on top time and time again. Tyree Mitchell had an excellent game, and outside of a few defensive lapses, I thought we played well today."

USJ is now 2-1 all-time vs EC, having won the last two meetings.

UP NEXT
The Blue Jays are back home for Senior Night against Johnson & Wales University on Tuesday, February 15 at 7:00 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets, or can head over to www.usjbluejays.com to catch the action live!

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