NEW YORK – Gwynedd-Mercy dropped a close 70-68 decision to John Jay at the NYU Tip-off Tournament in the season opener on Saturday afternoon.

Senior Frank Champion (Northfield, N.J./Mainland) led the Griffins with 19 points and seven rebounds, but GM couldn't get a shot off after a Bloodhound free throw miss with just one second remaining.

Gwynedd jumped out to a 7-3 lead with the help of Brendan Stanton (Harleysville, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) as the senior would hit two of his team-high three-pointers. Later John Jay used a 10-0 run capped with a trey from Darryl Dennis to take a nine-point lead, their biggest of the half.

The Griffins battled back with a run of their own (18-5) to reclaim a 27-23 edge on a Derek Domino layup with 5:44 in the period. The teams entered the half tied at 32-32 apiece.

The Bloodhounds would go up by five early in the second before sophomore Justin Knight (Mays Landing, N.J./Oakcrest) put the exclamation point on a 14-0 run with a dunk as Gwynedd led, 52-43, their largest margin, with 13:12 remaining.

Isaiah Holman, who scored 17 of his 26 points in the second stanza, helped John Jay battle back.

Knight's bucket inside tied things up at 66-66 all with 2:01 left but Jamar Harry hit two backbreaking buckets, the latter coming with 10 ticks left to give the Bloodhounds a late four-point lead.

Knight would finish with 10 points, four assists, three steals and two blocks.

As a team GM shot 52.0% (26-of-50) committed 22 turnovers that led to 28 Bloodhound points. John Jay was just 26-of-65 (40.0%) from the field, but hit for 10 three-pointers. Holman hit seven treys on the day.

Harry also finished with 26 points, and pulled down a game-high 16 boards.

Gwynedd-Mercy will face off with SUNY-Geneseo tomorrow in the consolation game at 1 p.m. The Blue Knights fell to the host Violets, 84-74, in today's other game.