Plattsburgh Holds Off Second-Half Rally, Tops Men’s Basketball 77-70
BOX SCORE
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.— The York College men's basketball team overcame an 11-point deficit to take a second-half lead, only to see Plattsburgh State retake the advantage and pull away late to defeat the Cardinals, 77-70, in the championship game of the Cardinal Classic in Plattsburgh Saturday afternoon.
Senior guard
Tony Vails scored a game-high 27 points and had four steals and senior center
Shamir Wilkinson netted 17 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead York in a losing effort. Junior forward
Jose Arroyo added nine points and sophomore forward
Thomas Hart chipped in six points and nine boards.
The Cardinals trailed the entire first half and faced a deficit as high as 11 points. But in the second half, York opened strong and erased a nine-point second-half deficit to tie the game 45-45 following a pair of free throws by
DaShawn Bobbitt at the 12:55 mark of the second half. They would later take their first lead of the contest when a
Shamir Wilkinson lay-up made it 49-47 with 11:15 to play.
The lead would be short-lived though, as a Chris Manning made lay-up put the Plattsburgh St. Cardinals up for good (52-51) with 9:54 to play. The score would remain close though, with York trailing by just four points with just under five minutes to play. But a three-pointer by Shamoy McIntosh with 4:06 left put Plattsburgh up by seven points and they never looked back. York could not get closer than six points the rest of the way.
Plattsburgh featured a balanced scoring attack, with three players scoring in double figures, led by McIntosh and Manning, who each had 11. Manning was named the MVP of the tournament.
Vails, who averaged 24.5 points in two games, and Wilkinson, who averaged 13 points and seven boards, also earned All-Tournament honors.
Plattsburgh improves to 2-0, while York drops to 1-1. The Cardinals will take on the University of Mary Washington next Saturday in the opening game of the North Carolina Wesleyan Tournament.
