New York, NY---In a defensive battle throughout, it was only fitting that No. 5 Brooklyn College made two stops in the final nine seconds of overtime to upset No. 1 John Jay College, 57-55, in the semifinals of the CUNYAC Men's Basketball Championship Tournament. The Bulldogs improve to 12-15 with the conference tourney win while the Bloodhounds exit the tournament at 20-6. Brooklyn advances to their first final appearance since winning the title in 2016. The Bulldogs will take on No.2 seed Baruch College who defeated No. 3 Lehman in the other semifinal game this evening this Friday, February 28th, at York College at 8:30 pm following the completion of the women's championship game, which starts at 5:30 pm. Tickets are FREE for both events and can be downloaded on cunyathletics.com.  

How It Happened
-Trailing 49-46, BC junior guard, sent the game into overtime by knocking down the game-tying three with :35 to go in regulation. 
-After a John Jay made jumper giving the Bloodhounds a 51-50 advantage, BC senior guard, Jordan Wright, responded with a made three as Brooklyn grabbed a 53-51 advantage with 3:43 left in overtime. Wright chipped in 10 points on the night including a pair of treys.   
-The home team would tie the contest, 53-53, before Brooklyn took the lead for good sparked by a layup finished by Shy in the post. 
-Brooklyn overcame a 31-22 halftime deficit thanks to an 8-0 run to start the second half capped by a layup finished by senior guard, Anthony McClean at the 16:35 mark. The Bulldogs kept on knocking and eventually took their first lead of the contest, 39-38, with just over ten minutes to go in regulation following a pair of McClean free-throw makes. He finished with 13 points on the night.
-John Jay controlled the majority of the first half beginning with an 11-3 lead to start the game.  The Bloodhounds led by as many as 11 points in the first twenty minutes of action. 

Box Score Breakdown
-Brooklyn turned their defense into offense, outscoring the Bloodhounds 20-12 in points off of turnovers.
-BC shot 8-20 from beyond the arc to John Jay's 6-24 for the game.
-Brooklyn out-rebounded John Jay 19-13 on the offensive boards.
-The Bulldogs held CUNYAC Player of the Year, Doug Levy, to two points scoring on the night.

Leading the Bulldogs
-Shy would be named Player of the Game finishing with a game-high 20 points while grabbing 8 rebounds.
-Junior forward, Wendly Alce, came off the bench to grab a team-high 11 boards.
-Junior guard, Kayin Olajide, was also key off of the bench finishing with eight points while knocking down a pair of important threes in clutch situations. He also grabbed six rebounds.