COUGARS
MEN'S BASKETBALL

CORINO WINS NO. 400 WITH VICTORY OVER DOMINICAN

1-12-06
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ORANGEBURG, N.Y. - Junior guard Jean Georges (Vauxhal, NJ/Spotswood) scored a career-high 29 points to lead the Caldwell College men's basketball team to an 86-78 win over Dominican College Thursday night at the Hennessy Center. With the win, Caldwell head coach Mark Corino earns his 400th career victory, becoming just the second active men's college basketball coach in New Jersey to reach the 400-win plateau. His overall coaching record in his 23rd season is now 400-256, including a 305-256 mark in 18 seasons as coach of the Cougars.

The win is the Cougars' fifth straight and improves their record to 8-8 overall and 4-4 in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The Chargers fall to 3-9 on the season and 2-5 in the CACC.

The Cougars started the game firing from three-point range, hitting 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, including two from senior guard Mark Kelly (Oakhurst, NJ/Ocean Twp.), to take a 12-2 lead. The Chargers reduced the lead to three points twice, only to have Caldwell regain a double-digit advantage. With the score 31-21 at the 5:32 mark of the first half, Dominican cut the lead to five with just over three minutes left in the half. Georges, right, answered for Caldwell, scoring nine of the team's next 12 points to spark a 14-2 run. Dominican's Charles Matthews ended the half with three points to make the score 45-31 in favor of Caldwell at the break.

The Cougars maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half, leading by as many as 16 points. A late 10-2 run allowed the Charges to cut the lead to 78-70 with a minute to play, and a three-pointer from Prince Jackson made it 79-73 with 42 seconds left. But five points from sophomore forward Manny Perez (Egg Harbor, NJ/Egg Harbor) down the stretch, punctuated by a thunderous dunk, allowed the Cougars to seal the win. Perez finished with 21 points and Kelly had 12 while hitting 4-of-5 from three-point range. Jackson scored 20 points to pace Dominican.

Corino joins an elite group of just six New Jersey men's college basketball coaches who have won 400 games, including Pete Carril of Princeton, Brown, James Catalano of NJIT, former Montclair State coach Ollie Gelston and Frank J. Hill, who coached at Seton Hall and Rutgers.

"Four hundred is a nice number, but it's the people you're involved with and the ability to touch people's lives as they come through the program that are the important things," Corino said. "I appreciate the players, coaches and the administration more than anything. They put us in position to win, and the 400 wins is a testament to them."

Corino and the Cougars return to the court on Saturday, Jan. 14, with a home CACC game against the University of Sciences. Game time is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at the George R. Newman Center.

All-time Winningest New Jersey Men's College Basketball Coaches

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Source: NCAA 2006 Men's Basketball Record Book

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