Box Score
JAMAICA, NY – The York College men’s basketball team saw its 13-game winning streak come to an end Friday night as Medgar Evers College upset the Cardinals 68-54 in a CUNY Athletic Conference match-up.
The Cardinals got off to a slow start and a number of their starters got into some early foul trouble. The Cougars took advantage against the York bench, jumping out to an 18-13 lead after a jumper by Winston Douglas with 11:00 minutes left before halftime. The Cardinals battled back and took a one point lead (19-18) after a pair of free throws by Jeremiah Fuller. However, Medgar Evers responded with a 14-5 run and took a 32-24 advantage after a pair of Ronald Holloway free throws. After each team exchanged buckets, the Cardinals closed the half with six unanswered points to tie the game at 34-34.
However, in the second half, things began to unravel for the Cardinals. York struggled mightily from the free throw line hitting only one of 12 shots (8.3%). York shot only 25 percent from the charity strip for the entire game. Conversely the Cougars shot 86 percent for the game, which proved to be the difference.
The second half was tightly contest until about the 8:00 mark when the Cougars began to pull away. With the Cougars leading by four points (54-50), Jovan Deare hit a jump shot and Marquis Jones put in a lay-up to put Medgar up by eight points with 6:21 to play. Mistakes and turnovers plagued York the rest of the way and the Cardinals could only get as close as seven points in the final six minutes.
Holloway led the Cougars with a game-high 21 points and Jarrel Deare added 11 points. Freshman center Winston Douglas scored eight points and grabed 14 rebounds, while also doing a solid job of containing York’s Marcel Esonwune, the nation’s leading rebounder.
For York, Esonwune finished with 17 points and ten boards and set a new career-high in blocks with eight. Elijah Evelyn paced York with 13 points. The Cardinals fall to 17-6, 10-1 in the CUNYAC, while Medgar Evers improves to 11-12, 5-6 in the CUNYAC.
York will host Lehman College on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.