NEW YORK, NY – Senior forward Richard Jean-Baptiste scored a game-high 28 points to help lead the second-seeded Brooklyn College Bulldogs to their second consecutive championship by defeating the top-seeded York College 79-68 in the final of the 45th Annual CUNYAC / Con Edison Men’s Basketball Championship on Saturday afternoon at Nat Holman Gymnasium on the campus of CCNY.
"Our energy in the second half was what won the game tonight," said Brooklyn College Coach Steve Podias, after his team, who took a 43-42 lead at the half, would never trail in the second half of play. York would tie the game twice, however an Amil John lay-up with 12:47 to go would break that tie and mark the closest that York would get for the remainder of the contest.
The first half didn't go as smoothly as the second, as York jumped out to an 18-8 lead, however with 12:08 to go in the period, the Cardinals star center, Marcel Esonwune picked up his second foul. York Head Coach Ron St. John decided to sit Esonwune, the CUNYAC Player of the Year, for the rest of the half. Initially, York was able to increase their lead with their leading scorer on the bench, going on a 10-5 run to up the margin to 28-13 with 9:31 left in the half.
The Bulldogs did not go away and began to slowly chip away at the Cardinal advantage. Two buckets by John, along with baskets by Jean-Baptiste, Tyshawn Russell and Enes Purisic added up to a 10-0 run, cutting the deficit to five points with 5:29 on the clock.
The two teams traded baskets for the next 3 minutes, until Jean-Baptiste, a former two-time CUNYAC Player of the Year, put in a floater, and then Ahmad Hemingway made two free throws to cut the York lead to one. Once again the teams traded baskets, but then a BC steal and pass ahead to John for the open lay-in with 8 seconds to go, gave the Bulldogs the 43-42 advantage at the half.
The second half saw Brooklyn use the momentum they gained in the final minutes of half one to step up their defense and use some timely shooting to hold on to the win.
After falling behind by six, York's Elijah Evelyn gave his team some life, getting to the free throw line and knocking down two shots to cut the lead to 64-60. BC's Thomas Guerin answered right back, knocking down a three from the left wing to extend the lead to 67-60 with 7:07 to go.
York would cut the deficit to 71-68, with 2:36 left, but four unanswered points by Jean-Baptiste, and then a basket and foul shot by Daniel Nisbett, would up the lead to 10 and end all hope for the Cardnials.
While not winning a championship for 36 years prior to last season's run, Brooklyn is has now won two consecutive titles for the first time a conference team has done so since York accomplished the feat in 2006 & 2007.
Jean-Baptiste, a senior forward from Queens, was named Tournament Most Valuable Player. "I am proud of the way my team fought today," said the two-time All-American. "We gave every ounce of energy that we had to make sure that we won tonight."
Sophomore guard Amil John was the only other Bulldog to score in double figures, finishing with 18 points. For the Cardinals, senior guard Nick Hamilton-Lopez scored a team high 23 points, while freshman forward Shamir Wilkinson scored 16 points and Evelyn contributed with 15 points. Esonwune was limited to just seven points, but had a game high 14 rebounds for the Cardinals.
“Big time players come to play in big time games," said York's St. John, who won his 300th career game behind the bench earlier this year. "I would love to blame someone for this loss but the bottom line is that 24 turnovers is way too many. We gave Brooklyn all the confidence in the world at the end of the first half. We stopped doing the things that got us here. We didn’t play like a championship caliber team. Jean-Baptiste stepped up tonight, and played like a champion.”
Jean-Baptiste was named the tournament most valuable player, while John, Hamtilon-Lopez and Esonwune were named to the All-Tournament Team, along with Hunter's Maxwell Dubois and Baruch's Chris Beauchamp.
Brooklyn College now advances to the 2010 NCAA Men's Division III Championship, beginning March 5-6 at capus sites. The 64-team field and entire tournament schedule will be officially announced on Monday, March 1 , via a webcast on NCAA.com. York will now look towards the ECAC Metro Championship Tournament (whcich the Cardinals have won twice in their history) and starts on Wednesday, March 3, with their opponent to be announced on Monday as well.
Tournament Most Valuable Player
Richard Jean-Baptiste (Brooklyn)
All-Tournament Team
Chris Beauchamp (Baruch)
Maxwell Dubois (Hunter)
Marcel Esonwune (York)
Amil John (Brooklyn)
Nicholas Hamtilon-Lopez (York)
2010 TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Quarterfinals, Saturday, February 20th @ Higher Seeds
#1 York 91, #8 CCNY 73
#2 Brooklyn 96, #7 Lehman 68
#3 Baruch 94, #6 Staten Island 76
#4 Hunter 93, #5 Medgar Evers 81
Semifinals, Tuesday, February 23rd @ CCNY
#1 York 88, #4 Hunter 84
#2 Brooklyn 88 #3 Baruch 78 (OT)
Championship, Saturday, February 27th @ CCNY
#2 Brooklyn 79, #1 York 68
--- cunyathletics.com --
Contributions Courtesy of Brooklyn College Sports Information