Lakewood, NJ- The Georgian Court University men's basketball team starred in their own version of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" with the role of the Grinch being played by Michael Bourke (R-Fr.-South Orange, N.J.) from the University of New Haven. Bourke scored a game high 31 points to lead the visiting Chargers to a 78-67 pre- Christmas break victory over the Lions Friday evening in the Wellness Center.

For both teams,the game started off slowly with the Chargers jumping out to an 8-2 lead seven minutes into the contest. From that point, the remainder of the first half featured stellar shooting as both clubs shot over 50% from the floor. New Haven went to the break with a slight six-point lead of 44-38. 

The second half opened with New Haven extending the lead to as many as 13 points before the Lions mounted a furious comeback behind the shooting prowess of Nikola Vujovic and Keith Hughes . The Lions cut the lead to as little as one point before Bourke drained one of his seven three-pointers (31 total points) to deny GCU the chance to draw even.

Vujovic led the Lions with a team-high 18 points and provided eight rebounds while Hughes chipped in with 15 points and a game-high eight boards. Michael Pierre came off the bench to score 12 points in 23 total minutes

For the Chargers, Levy Gillespie (So.-Meriden, Conn.) followed Bourke's total with 22 points off the Chargers' bench,  including a perfect 6-6 from the charity stripe. Tommy Hunt (So.-Smithfield, R.I.) added 12 points, all from three-point range.

Georgian Court will now step away for the holiday break and return to action on January 2nd when they travel to St. Thomas Aquinas College.