MANHATTAN --- (www.YORKATHLETICS.com) York College women's basketball started slow Tuesday evening on the road against the Hunter College Hawks (11-8, 8-2 CUNYAC) and fell by the final count of 78-55 to the defending CUNYAC Champions inside Hunter Sportsplex.  

The Cardinals jumped ahead early with a layup by Ellma Hodzic to break the scoring ice 2:14 in for York's lone lead of the game.  Hunter responded with a 12-0 run to build a double-digit cushion (12-2) with 4:39 left in the opening period.  Mac-Dege Dessources dropped in a pair of layups before Diamond Jackson sank a free-throw to pull York within six (13-7).  Hunter scored 10-unanswered points to close out the final 2:11 for a 23-7 lead after one quarter of play.  Trailing by as many as 22 (32-10) in the first half, Kristina Sierra drained a pair of triples to ignite a 12-2 Cardinal spurt in the final 3:19 to slice the deficit to 11 (39-28) at the break. 

York continued its momentum to the second half as Dessources dropped in a layup 16 seconds in to make it a nine-point game (39-30).  Hunter answered with a 12-0 run to put the game out of reach and played with a double-digit lead for the remaining 39:16. 

Dessources led all scorers with a career-high 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the floor and added 21 rebounds (10 offensive), one block and one steal in 40 minutes of action to collect her 10th double-double of the season (22nd career).  Hodzic tallied 10 points and three steals while Sierra netted eight.  Keyla Cabrera pulled down 10  boards and Lizbeth Nunez swept away a career-high two steals. 

Janine Conway paced Hunter with 27 points as Phoebe Valenton went for 16 points, six steals, five assists and five rebounds.  Theresa Leung chipped in with 13 points, eight assists and three steals. 

York finished the contest shooting 30.2 percent from the field (19-of-63), 23.1 percent from 3-point territory (3-of-13) and 70 percent from the free-throw line (14-of-20) as Hunter landed 39.7 percent from the floor (29-of-73), 31.7 percent from long distance (13-of-41) and 87.5 percent from the charity stripe (7-of-8).  The Cardinals held a +15 rebounding margin (53-38) and scored 19 second-chance points off 22 offensive rebounds.  York outplayed Hunter in the paint (30-28) while the Hawks held the advantage in assists (25-9), steals (17-8), blocks (7-1) and scored 32 points of 29 Cardinal turnovers.

The Cardinals (6-12, 3-6 CUNYAC) will go for the season-sweep of the Lehman College Lightning (1-18, 1-8 CUNYAC) Friday evening in a CUNYAC matchup starting at 5:30 p.m. inside York College Gymnasium.

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