York College

BRONX, NY— After starting the season a dismal 3-11, the York College men's basketball team has gotten all the way back to the .500 mark after they earned a hard-fought, 71-63,  win over conference-rival Lehman College on Wednesday evening.  York has now won seven straight, and nine of its last ten to even its mark at 12-12 on the season. Their conference record improves to 9-3 and puts them into third place overall, guaranteeing a home-playoff game for the first round of the City University of New York Athletic Conference Championships.

York got major contributions from three players in the win, led by junior point guard Ryan Exum who nearly recorded a triple-double, scoring 18 points, grabbing nine boards and dishing out eight assists.  Sophomore center Marcel Esonwune finished with 17 points, five boards and five steals despite only playing for 19 minutes because of foul trouble. Junior guard Nicholas Hamilton-Lopez paced York with 13 points. 

The game was see-saw battle throughout the first thirty minutes of play with each team exchanging leads several times.  However, York began to pull away in the final ten minutes.   With the Cardinals holding on to a narrow 51-47 lead, York scored five straight points to extend its lead to a comfortable nine points. 

The Cardinals eventually opened up a 12-point lead, 63-51, when Esonwune drained a jumper with 3:41 to play; its largest lead of the game.  Lehman did make York sweat it our however, and cut the lead to five points, 68-63, with 40 seconds remaining after Duane Rhoden connected on a three-pointer.  The Lightning could net any closer though as York made enough of its free throws the rest of the way to seal the victory.

Lehman was led by Alen Redzi who finished with a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing a game-high 19 boards.  

York will visit Brooklyn College to close out the regular season on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.