Box Score
Bronx, NY- The Brooklyn College Men (11-4, 5-2 CUNYAC) earned a hard-fought 77-70 win over Lehman College (7-10, 3-4 CUNYAC) in conference play last night.
Brooklyn began the night with an early lead, as both Richard Jean-Baptiste (St. John's Prep/ Queens, NY) and Daniel Nisbett (Petrides/Staten Island, NY) contributed early trifectas. The Lightning fought back to tie the game at 10-10 moments later. The Bridges would retake the lead on a Nisbett lay-up, and extend the advantage to 24-17 midway through the opening stanza on a pair of free throws from Corey McFarlane (Transit Tech / Brooklyn, NY). A Jameson Garcia (Norman Thomas / Bronx, NY) jumper keyed an 11-4 Lehman spurt over the next four minutes to again knot the game at 28-28. BC would push the lead back to eight points, 38-30, on an Enes Purisic (William C. Bryant / Astoria, NY) lay-up with three minutes to go in the session. A Lightning run at the half's end was cut short by the buzzer, and the Bridges held a three-point edge 42-39 at the break.
Coming out of halftime, BC scored the first six points to take a nine point lead. McFarlane converted a three-pointer eight minutes into the stanza to increase the Brooklyn lead to 13 points, 62-49. Brooklyn would keep the lead in double digits for the next five minutes, until a 7-1 run by Lehman pulled the Lightning to within four 69-65. With just over two minutes to play, the Bridges were still holding onto a four point lead. Brooklyn was successful on 8 of 10 free throws in the final ninety seconds to stretch the lead and preserve the victory.
It was a good day for the BC starters, as the quintet of Jean-Baptiste, Nesbitt, Purisic, McFarlane, and Thomas Guerin (St. Edmund Prep / Brooklyn, NY) combined to score 70 of the game's 77 points. Jean-Baptiste, the reigning CUNYAC Player of the Week, led all scorers with 26 points to go along with 12 rebounds. The Brooklyn back-court duo of McFarlane and Guerin teamed up to score 20 points and dish out 10 assists.
The Bridges remain on the road, facing CUNYAC South Division rival New York City College of Technology on Friday night in Downtown Brooklyn.
