Men's Basketball Tops Transylvania on Sunday at CNU Holiday INNvitational

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Less than 24 hours removed from the program's worst shooting performance, the University of Saint Joseph men's basketball team shot a season-high 54.7% from the field in a bounce-back victory over Transylvania University, 77-61, in the consolation game of the Christopher Newport University (CNU) Holiday INNvitational Sunday afternoon at the Freeman Center in Newport News, Va. With the win, USJ improved to 4-2 on the season while the Pioneers dropped its third straight game and fell to 1-3.

HOW IT HAPPENED 

It was yet again another slow start for the Blue Jays, who missed nine of its first ten shots, and had just as many turnovers as points, having three over the first seven-plus minutes of the first half. Trailing 15-3, Junior guard Lence Altenor (Everett, Mass.) made a layup to kickstart a 16-0 run. Junior forward Friedrich Feldrappe (Berlin, Germany) scored eight of his 18 points for the game during the rally, including his second three-pointer of the contest to give USJ a 19-15 lead with 7:19 left in the first half. Later, Feldrappe continued the hot hand as the Blue Jays made five of their last six shots of the opening half, capped off by Feldrappe's fourth three-pointer. Feldrappe, the Blue Jays leading scorer on the season, only netted three points on three shot attempts yesterday in USJ's loss to Franklin & Marshall. However, against the Pioneers, Feldrappe played much more aggressively and scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half and made a career-high four three-pointers in the first 20 minutes of action, helping USJ go into the halftime break with a 35-32 lead. 

The Blue Jays' stifling defense kept the Pioneers attack at bay at the beginning of the second half. Leading 43-34, USJ turned defense into offense after Altenor picked up a steal and finished it off with a fast break dunk. Just 30 seconds later, senior guard Tahmeen Dupree (Brooklyn, N.Y.) got his own steal and fast break dunk. A few minutes later, Altenor picked up another steal and passed it off to Dupree for a layup to give USJ a 56-39 lead with 9:46 left. Dupree and Altenor finished the game with eight points and 14 points, respectively. 

Transylvania would not go away quietly though as a Colby Napier (Hindman, Ky.) three-pointer ignited a 12-2 Pioneers run to cut the Blue Jays' lead to just seven, 62-55, with 4:10 left, and forced USJ to call a timeout. Following the timeout, senior guard Kevin Cummings (Portsmouth, N.H.) finished off the Pioneers. The Colby-Sawyer transfer rattled off 10 points in a row and 12 of the final 14 USJ points to help the Blue Jays finish 1-1 on the weekend with a 77-61 triumph. Cummings ended the afternoon with a career-high 27 points, breaking his previous high of 26 points, which he scored with the Chargers two seasons ago.  

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE 

• USJ improved to 9-7 all-time on a neutral floor.
• It was the first all-time meeting between the Blue Jays and Pioneers and the first time USJ played a program from the state of Kentucky. 
• Three Blue Jays scored in double-digits: Cummings (career-high 27 points), Feldrappe (18 points) and Altenor (14 points).

UP NEXT

The Blue Jays will have six days off to prepare and travel back home for its Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opener against Saint Joseph's College of Maine. It will be a rematch of the 2024 GNAC Tournament Championship game, which resulted in a USJ 78-59 victory and the program's third GNAC Tournament Championship. The Blue Jays have won 62 straight GNAC regular season games. It's last conference loss was on February 19th, 2019 to Suffolk University, a program that is no longer in the GNAC.

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