NJCU Holds Off York in Final Minutes; Cardinals Fall 76-70
BOX SCORE
JAMAICA, NY— The York College men's basketball team fought hard against an unbeaten New Jersey City University team but came up just a little bit short in the end, losing by a score of 76-70 in a non-conference contest Monday evening.
NJCU grabbed the momentum in the early going, jumping out to a seven-point advantage (11-4) following a three-pointer by Taquan Abdullah with 13:47 left in the opening half. Three minutes later, Michael Morris drained a three-pointer, giving the Gothic knights an 18-7 lead with 10:52 to play.
It briefly looked like NJCU would run away with things but York answered right back, scoring nine unanswered points to close to within two. A three-pointer by
Mark Evans two possession later and then a successful three-point play by
Tony Vails cut the lead to five. A made free throw and then a lay-up by
Shamir Wilkinson on York's next possessions closed the score to 18-16 with 7:02 remaining in the half.
The two went back-and-forth over the final seven minutes of the half and Vails ended the half with a lay-up in the finals seconds to make the score 33-30 going into the locker room.
Just like they did to open the game, NJCU came out strong early in the second half, extending its lead to eight points, four minutes in. York once again proved to be resilient and responded with an 8-0 run to tie the score at 40-40. A few minutes later, York grabbed its first lead since the opening bucket when a Phillippe Gregoire free throw put them up 45-44.
However, just as York looked like it was grabbing some momentum, two of their big men fouled out with ample time remaining. Wilkinson picked up a pair of quick fouls and fouled out at the 9:31 mark and Gregoire fouled out shortly after, at the 7:52 mark. The Cardinals were forced to play undersized against a big NJCU team for the rest of the game.
The impact was immediately felt as NJCU scored nine unanswered to go up 59-51 with 7:52 to play. Free throws were the key as seven of the nine points came from the charity stripe. Matt Washingoton closed the run with a three-point play.
York continued to battle, despite being undermanned, and closed to within four points with 4:47 to play after Vails made a difficult lay-up in traffic. However, NJCU quickly went back up by eight points (59-67) thanks to a couple of emphatic dunks by Walik Albright and Kairique Irick on the Gothic Knight's next two possession. That put the game away, as York could not get closer than six in the final minutes.
Despite the loss, York was led by Vails who scored a game-high 22 points, while handing out five assists. Evans added 21 points and seven boards and Gregoire had 11 points.
Du'Quan Lawson had six assists off the bench.
NJCU was led by Irick, who had 21 points on 10-18 shooting. Albright added 15 points and Washington had a big game down low, scoring 13 points, pulling down 14 boards and dishing out five assists.
NJCU improves to a perfect 6-0, while York drops to 1-6. The Cardinals will host Rutgers-Newark on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.
