JAMAICA, NY --- (
www.YORKATHLETICS.com) York College men's basketball is primed to take the court Saturday (Feb. 17) as the No. 6 seed in a return to CUNYAC Championship play for the third-consecutive season. The Cardinals (5-19) will travel for a first-round matchup against the No. 3 Lehman College Lightning (16-9) at 2:30 p.m. inside APEX Arena.
In the two regular season encounters, Lehman claimed the season series with an 89-64 road win on December 1 followed by an 88-60 February 3 decision on its home court. The Cardinals meet Lehman in the postseason for the first time since the 2014 semifinals.
Senior forward
Olawale Kila spearheads York's offense, averaging 16.2 points as the CUNYAC's fifth-ranked scorer, to go along with 10.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals in 33.9 minutes per game. Kila's running mate, freshman guard
Aidony Nivar, a top-10 scorer in the league's heirarchy and a six-time CUNYAC Rookie of the Week selection, is averaging 14.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 steals while shooting 38.1 percent from 3-point range. Coming on strong over the last nine games is senior forward
Tyres Desinor, who is scoring at team-leading 16.9 points a clip during that stretch.
Under first-year head coach
Clarence Emengo, York has a top-5 offense in the league at 71.7 points, highlighted by a CUNYAC-leading 35.6 percent from 3-point land. The Cardinals also shoot 69.5 percent from the free-throw line (2nd in CUNYAC) and 41.5 percent from the field (4th in CUNYAC). The Cardinals rank 41st in the nation in distribution (16.5 assists per game), as junior guard
Rohan Singh (3.4 assists) and freshman guards
Tafari Jerome (3.1 assists) contribute 3.4 and 3.1 assists, respectively.
The winner of Saturday's first-round tilt will play again Tuesday (Feb. 21) in the CUNYAC semifinals against the top-seeded Baruch College Bearcats (20-5). From there, the title game will be hosted by Baruch College next Friday (Feb. 23) at 8:30 p.m. inside ARC Arena.
2024 CUNYAC Men's Basketball Championship
No. 1 Baruch
No. 2 CCNY
No. 3 Lehman
No. 4 Hunter
No. 5 Brooklyn
No. 6 York
First Round – Saturday, February 17
No. 4 Hunter vs. No. 5 Brooklyn – 2 p.m.
No. 3 Lehman vs. No. 6 York – 2:30 p.m.
Semifinals – Wednesday, February 21
No. 2 CCNY vs. Lehman/York – 6:00 p.m.
No. 1 Baruch vs. Hunter/Brooklyn – 7:30 p.m.
Championship Game – Friday, February 23 (at Baruch College)
Semifinal Winner #1 vs. Semifinal Winner #2 – 8:30 p.m.
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