York Holds off Late Rally by CCNY; Tops Beavers 69-65 in Regular Season Finale
BOX SCORE
NEW YORK, N.Y— The York College men's basketball team held off a late run by the City College of New York and earned a 69-65 victory in the regular season finale Saturday evening.
Junior guard
Tony Vails scored a team-high 19 points on 8-12 shooting and handed out five assists as he had his best game since suffering a leg injury a few weeks earlier.
Shamir Wilkinson chipped in 15 points and five rebounds and
Michael Trowers added eight points. Senior
Omari Phipps finished with eight points and needs seven more points to reach 1,000 for his career.
Phipps will have at least one more crack at becoming the eighth player in York College history to reach 1,000 points. York (8-17, 4-7 CUNYAC) has earned a spot in next weekend's CUNY Athletic Conference Championships opening round. They will await the pairings to be announced for next Saturday's playoff contest.
York was in control for the entire first half, leading by as many as 12 points before taking a ten-point advantage (32-22) into the locker room. Things got a little more interesting in the second half though. York was leading by seven points (34-27) with 17:57 left when a 10-4 run made it just a one-point game with 13:29 to play. Israel Vickers was key for the Beavers during the run, making a pair of three-pointers.
But York never allowed CCNY (2-22, 1-11 CUNYAC) to take the lead and eventually built its lead back up to 11 points (59-48) after a lay-up by Phipps with 5:54 to play. The Beavers fought back one more time though, this time responding with a 7-0 run to make it a four-point game with 3:38 left. York once again bent but didn't break and was able to hold off the run. Key buckets by Vails and Wilkinson down the stretch helped to seal the win.
