BROOKLYN --- (www.YORKATHLETICS.com) York College men's basketball were unable to hold on to a four-point halftime lead Saturday on the road as a second-half push by the Medgar Evers College Cougars (7-17, 4-9 CUNYAC) concluded the Cardinals' season with a heartbreaking 95-92 CUNYAC loss inside Cougars Cave.  

The Cardinals (8-17, 4-10 CUNYAC) finish the season in seventh place in the league standings to miss out on a return trip to CUNYAC Championship play and will look to advance to the postseason in 2020-21.  York graduates Jean-Luc Etienne as their lone senior and will look to retool with eight returnees expected to be in the fold next season.  

After missed opportunities from both teams, Mambe Kouriessi dropped in a layup 45 seconds in to give York the early lead.  With the game tied at eight, Donald Hartley, Jr. scored six of his 25 first-half points as part of a 12-0 Cardinal run to lead 20-8 with 13:11 left.  Moments later, Akil Vaughn followed a Jaye Bookhart miss with a tip-in to extend York's advantage to a game-high 14-point lead (31-17) with 9:57 remaining in the stanza.  The Cougars chipped away and scored six-unanswered points on a pair of Elias Scott 3-pointers in the final 34 seconds to cut the deficit to four (47-43) at the half.  

York went up by as many as six in the second half before Scott sank a triple at the 13:49 mark to give Medgar Evers its first lead of the game, 58-56.  York played from behind for the final 13:49 and went down by 10 (79-69) on back-to-back 3-pointers by Keison McIntosh with 7:09 remaining. Trailing 93-91 wIth 13 seconds left, Hartley, Jr. hit one of two from the free-throw line to make it a one-point game.  Hartley, Jr. accounted for nine of York's final 12 points before Dimitri Weeks settled the scoring with a pair of free-throws with 11 seconds showing on the clock. With a chance to tie the game, York raced the length of the court in the closing seconds, but were unable to connect on an attempt from 3-point range by Mambe Koureissi with five seconds left.

Hartley, Jr. finished with a career-high 36 points (10-of-17 FG) and connected on 7-of-11 from 3-point territory and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line in addition to producing seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.  Bookhart scored 16 points and Devine Chisholm followed with 12 points, eight assists and five steals. Koureissi used 11 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks to register his team-leading ninth double-double of the season.  

Medgar Evers also scored four players in double-digits, led by Mousa Sinera's 27-point effort.  Weeks tallied 21 points followed by Scott's 18 and 14 from Isaiah Garvey-Mwazi.

In the end, York shot 47.2 percent from the field (234-of-72), 40.9 percent from 3-point land (9-of-22) and 78.9 percent from the free-throw line (15-of-19) as Medgar Evers sank 48.5 percent from the floor (33-of-68), 40.9 percent from beyond the arc (9-of-22) and 74.1 percent from the charity stripe (20-of-27).  York won the boards battle, 41-38, and scored 20 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds. The Cardinals also outplayed Medgar Evers in points in the paint (44-34) and points off turnovers (24-14) while the Cougars held the edge in assists (21-18), steals (12-8), blocks (5-2) and bench scoring (22-9). 

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