BRONX, N.Y. - The Lehman College men's basketball team dropped a hard fought contest to the College of Staten Island, by a score of 86-76. Senior guard Kelvin Gil led all scorers with 23 points but the Lightning could not overcome the Dolphin's balanced attack.

Staten Island remains unbeaten in CUNY Athletic Conference play at 12-0, while the Lightning drop to 5-7 in conference games.

Lehman got off to a strong start as senior guard Stanley Stephens (New York, N.Y./Manhattan Center) nailed a three-point basket to put the home team up, 5-1, just over a minute into the game. After Staten Island cut the lead to one, sophomore forward Jerrome Jones (Bronx, N.Y./Mount Vernon) drilled a shot from beyond the arc, to put the Lightning's lead back to four with 17:35 left in the opening half. The visitors sliced the lead in half, but Stephens responded by driving the ball in the paint and laying it up and in to put Lehman up, 10-6, with 16:30 left in the first stanza.

Staten Island countered by scoring the next seven points in less than a minute to jump out to a three point lead. Gil (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Hayes) scored a bucket from downtown to tie the game at 13 with 15:07 left in the opening half.

A short time later, the Dolphins went on a 9-2 run to reclaim momentum. The Lightning would not have the lead again for the remainder of the half.

In the beginning of the second half, the Lightning struck back as Gil took a feed from sophomore guard Edwin Diaz (City Island, N.Y./Westside) and knocked down another three-point shot to put Lehman up, 44-43. After Staten Island grabbed the lead back, junior guard Jonathan Greenfield (Hartford, Conn./Windsor) added a layup to make it 46-45 Lehman with 17:39 left to play in regulation.

After Staten Island took the lead once again, Jones continued the back-and-forth match by laying the ball up and in to put the Lightning up, 48-47, with 16:29 left. Gil converted another three-point shot to give Lehman a two-point lead with 15:36 remaining in the game. He also added a layup to extend Lehman's lead to 55-51 with 14:39 to go.

However, the Dolphins would take over in the last 12 minutes of the game. Staten Island went on a 9-0 run to take a comfortable lead and never look back. The Dolphins closed the game out, winning by 10.

Stephens scored 19 points while Jones scored 12 of his own to lead Lehman.

The Lightning will travel to Baruch College on Thursday, February 6, for another CUNYAC game. Tip-off is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.