Box Score
NEW YORK, NY— The York College men’s basketball team picked up its 11th consecutive victory Wednesday evening and remained unbeaten in conference play, defeating the City College of New York 84-72, in a CUNY Athletic Conference contest.
Four players reached double figures for York and the Cardinals outscored the Beavers by 11 points in the second-half to earn the victory. Nicholas Hamilton-Lopez led all scorers with 20 points, while Ryan Exum added 17 points and six assists. Marcel Esonwune recorded another double-double, his 17th of the season and ninth in a row, scoring 16 points and grabbing 13 boards. Elijah Evelyn also added 16 points for York.
The Cardinals found themselves in a tight game for the first half. The game went back-and-forth early on until CCNY opened up an 11-0 run, capped off by consecutive three-pointers by CCNY’s Vincent Roberts. The run gave the Beavers a 31-23 advantage with 6:09 to play before halftime. However, after to closing to within five points, the Cardinals finished the half strong when David Simon and Nicholas Hamilton-Lopez each connected from long range in the final 1:30 to put York on top by one point, 36-35 at halftime.
In the second half, CCNY once again opened up a comfortable lead, taking a seven-point advantage (45-38) after a three-pointer by Israel Vickers with 17:41 to play. York quickly responded, scoring the next seven points to tie the game. Esonwune opened and closed the run with a bucket, and Hamilton-Lopez converted a three-point play in between to even up the score at 45-45.
A few minutes later, with the scored tied at 54-54, York opened up a 10-2 run and took 64-56 lead after a tip-in by Evelyn with 7:42 to play. York would extend its lead from that point forward and were not threatened the rest of the way.
Roberts led CCNY with 19 points and nine boards, while Matas Rascius and Vickers each added 14 points.
With the win York improves to 15-5, and 8-0 in the CUNYAC. CCNY falls to 6-13, 2-7 in the CUNYAC. The Cardinals will visit City Tech on Friday at 7:00 p.m.