Box Score
MONTCLAIR, NJ– The York College men’s basketball team routed Eastern University by a score of 83-57 in the opening round of the Montclair State University Tip-Off Tournament Friday evening. In addition, York head coach, Ronald St. John picked up his 298th career victory and moved one step closer to the historic 300 win milestone.
York (1-1) will now take on host Montclair State University in the championship game at 3:00 p.m. Montclair defeated Hunter College 77-69 in overtime later in the evening.
The Cardinals jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back. Senior Elijah Evelyn hit three of his five three-pointers in the opening five minutes as York ran out to an 18-4 lead. Eastern would cut the deficit to 18-10 as Martin Soaries hit a short jumper, but Ryan Exum scored five straight points as the Cardinals went back up by 13 points and led 42-23 at the half.
York extended its lead to as many as 33 points in the second half after a pair of Shamir Wilkinson free throws made it 72-39 with 7:38 to play. Evelyn finished with a game-high 22 points and shot 80 (8-10) percent from the field and 83 percent (5-6) from three-point range. Junior center Marcel Esonwune recorded his second double-double in as many games, scoring 15 points and grabbing 15 rebounds while also blocking four shots and swiping three steals.
Nicholas Hamilton-Lopez had 16 points and five rebounds for York, which shot 53 percent in the first half (15-of-28), including 6-of-12 from behind the arc and finished the game 29-of-60 from the field. York also made 17-of-25 attempts at the foul line. #Omari Phipps# added 10 points.
Eastern was led by Soaries with 15 points and Jason Reels with 12.