Box Score

NEW YORK, NY (December 9, 2009) – A 16-6 run by Hunter College in the final 4:33 of the first half and a 13-6 spurt in the opening five minutes of the second half was all the host Hawks needed to send the Vassar men's basketball team to its sixth straight loss, 102-90, Wednesday evening in non-conference action at the Hunter Sportsplex. 

The Brewers, now 2-6, remain idle until December 19. Vassar next travels to William & Mary to face its first Division I opponent since November 26, 1996, when the Brewers lost at Army, 92-52. Hunter improves to 5-3 and travels to William Paterson on December 12. 

After falling behind by 17 points, 73-55 with 12:29 remaining, the Brewers got within seven points three separate times, but on each occasion, the Hawks had the necessary resolve and response to keep Vassar at arm's length. A Chris Whitney jumper in the lane brought the Brewers within 78-71 with 7:29 to play. A Jon Herzog 3-pointer with 5:53 remaining got Vassar within 85-77 and two free throws by John Donnelly got the Brewers within 88-81 with 5:19 to play. Each time, however, the hurdle was too high for Vassar to scale. 

The catalyst behind Vassar's comeback effort was Herzog. Before fouling out with 3:35 to play, the freshman guard scored 15 of his career high 23 points in the second half, with eight of those tallies coming in a span of 41 seconds when the Brewers were at full throttle and peeling away at the large Hunter lead. 

The Hawks had their own sparkplug in junior guard Rocco Rubino, who scored 22 of his game-high 30 points in the second half. Rubino was able to match Herzog's scoring prowess and behind a 10 for 17 shooting performance from the field and 8 of 10 outing from the line kept the Brewers in an all-too-familiar role of having to play catch-up. 

In the all-important last five minutes of the first half and first five minutes of the second half, Hunter decidedly won those mini games. When Caleb McGraw made a jumper that gave Vassar a 36-31 lead – its largest of the game with 4:33 until intermission, the prospects of ending the losing streak were sizeable. But Hunter then reeled off a 16-6 run to close out the half. It was keyed by its first half star, freshman guard Erick Klingsberg, who tallied 14 of his 24 points in the opening 20 minutes, and had five of Hunter's 16 points during that span. 

After Herzog cut the Hunter lead to 47-45 – the closest Vassar would come in the game – with a 3-pointer just 23 seconds into the second half, the Hawks went on a game-statement 10-3 run that saw Rubino score six straight points. The Hunter lead ballooned to 73-53 after Klingsberg tucked in a layup. 

Sophomore David de la Torre produced his second straight double figures game with 15 points. He was followed by 13 from McGraw and 12 from #John Donnelly and Whitney. 

Hunter was offensively potent, shooting 55 percent from the field and connecting on opponent high 33 free throws in 39 attempts. Hunter had three double figures scorers -- Rubino and Klingsberg -- and got a third double figure effort by junior guard Maxwell Dubois, who also had a game-high nine rebounds.