NEW HAVEN, Connecticut- The American International College men's basketball team looked to keep their postseason hope alive against the Owls of Southern Connecticut. The Yellow Jackets held a three point lead at the half, but the Owls were too much as they took the game 78-68. With the loss, the Yellow Jackets have mathematically been eliminated from the playoffs.

Javyon Pitts-Young led AIC with 21 points and he added four boards. Tahlib Swan had 15 and four, while Kassim Kaba had 10 points. Rasheed Howard pulled down eight boards while scoring seven points.

Javyon Pitts-Young opened the game with a three on a pass from Tahlib Swan. The AIC defense forced a long shot that Yellow Jackets rebounded and Rasheed Howard ran the floor and laid in for the early 5-0 lead. SCSU took six of the next eight points to make it a 7-6 game just over two minutes in.

At the 14:19 mark, the Owls earned their first lead of the game on a layup by Toby Christensen, 15-14. Forty seconds later, Owl Bernard Brantley laid the ball in and made it a three point game. Swan ended the SCSU 7-0 run with a jumper, to put his total up to five. A triple by Pitts-Young from Moody gave the Yellow Jackets the 24-22 lead with nine and a half left in the opening frame.

Kassim Kaba extended the AIC lead to six with three minutes on the clock on a layup from Moody. That was the largest lead the Yellow Jackets had in the first half. At the break, AIC led 39-36.

It took 34 seconds for the Owls to regain the lead. Their 15-1 run at the end of the first half and start of the second half gave them the 48-40 advantage at the 17 minute mark.

The Yellow Jackets started to battle back as Swan made it a one possession game when he hit a pair from the charity stripe, but Michael Mallory started an Owl 7-0 run with 11:15 left in the game that gave the Owls their first double digit lead of the night, 62-51.

From that point on, the Owls slowed the game down by using the majority of the shot clock on their possessions. AIC cut their deficit down to five, but it would not be enough as they fell to Southern Connecticut by a score of 78-68.

The Yellow Jackets will return to action on Saturday, February 11 at 3:30 p.m. against Pace.