York College

Box Score

JAMAICA, NY— The York College men’s basketball team dropped a hard-fought game to CUNY Athletic Conference rival Brooklyn College, 71-62, in its conference opener Tuesday night.

The Bridges came out firing on all cylinders and jumped out to a 25-9 advantage just seven minutes into the game.  Richard Jean-Baptiste led the charge, going a perfect 5-5 from three-point range during the run.    

However, the Cardinals settled down and slowly cut into Brooklyn’s lead during the remainder of the first half.   With 3:07 left in the half, sophomore Omari Phipps (Laurleton, NY/ St. Johns Prep) hit a lay-up to bring York within three points, 34-31.  York went into the locker room trailing 37-34.

Early in the second half, the Cardinals looked like they had gained the momentum back for good.  Another Phipps lay-up at the 14:05 mark, gave York its largest lead; a 45-39 cushion.  However, Brooklyn responded with an 8-0 run thanks to a jumper and a three-pointer by Ahmad Hemingway and another trifecta by Jean-Baptiste.

Later in the half, with 4:02 left to play, Nahum Verna (Port-au-Prince, Haiti/ Hillcrest) drained a three-pointer to tie the game at 59-59.  However, the Bridges closed out the game with an 11-3 run, thanks to strong free-throw shooting by Thomas Guerin who was 8-8 from the charity stripe in the final minutes of play. 

Jean-Baptiste led all scorers with 23 points to go along with seven rebounds. Guerin finished with 17 points and six assists, while Hemingway netted 15 points. Daniel Nisbit paced Brooklyn with 14 points.

For the Cardinals, Phipps finished with a team-high 17 points and nine rebounds.  Ryan Exum (Bronx, NY/ Truman) added 16 points and eight boards, while Verna tallied 15 points.

York falls to 1-6, 0-1 in the CUNYAC, while Brooklyn improves to 4-1, 1-0 in CUNYAC play.

York will visit Baruch on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.