YORK COLLEGE Jamaica, NY---Completing a CUNYAC Basketball Championship sweep, the No. 5 seeded Brooklyn College men's basketball team survived a late Baruch College run to capture their first conference title since 2016 over the No. 2 Bearcats tonight, 62-55.  Senior guard, Anthony McClean, claimed the game's MVP finishing with a game-high 16 points.  Brooklyn heads into the NCAA Division III Tournament with a 13-15 overall record following their Cinderella conference tourney run while Baruch drops to 17-10.  The Bulldogs will wait until Monday to find out who their First Round NCAA Tournament opponent will be.

How It Happened

• Baruch would take their first lead of the game, 54-53, with 3:26 to go in the contest.  However, they wouldn't have it long before McClean gave the Bulldogs the lead for good with a five-point outburst capped with a three-point make. A couple of defensive stops later and successful trips at the free-throw line secured the title victory in the final two minutes. 
• Brooklyn jumped out to an 8-0 lead to start the game including a pair of three-pointers from the wing buried by Tesoriero to force an early Baruch timeout.  However, the Bearcats responded with an 8-0 run of their own to tie the contest at 10 with 14:00 to go in the first half. The teams battle for the next five minutes. 
• Holding a 22-19 lead, the Bulldogs exploded for a 10-0 run capped by a three drained by senior guard, Jordan Wright, giving Brooklyn a 32-19 advantage with 5:05 to go in the first half. Wright paced the Bulldogs with nine first half points.  Senior guard, Orri Cohen, was instrumental during the run, banging a three followed by a fast-break finish to ignite the sold-out crowd.  The Bulldogs would head into halftime with a 36-27 lead.
• Brooklyn only turned the ball over twice while forcing seven Bearcat turnovers in the first half. The Bulldogs also shot a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe to Baruch's 1-2 in the first 20 minutes of action.
• With Brooklyn grabbing a 12-point lead following an Elisha Park three-point make, the Bearcats responded with an 11-0 run to cut Brooklyn's lead to 48-47 with 8:36 to go in the second half. Senior forward, David Melman would stop the Brooklyn bleeding with a pair of free-throw makes at the 7:45 mark.  
• McClean started the scoring for Brooklyn in the second half with a three-point make after Baruch came out into the second half with a 3-0 flurry.  Brooklyn kicked their lead back up to double-digits after a second-chance layup finished by Tesoriero giving the Bulldogs a 41-30 advantage with 17:07 to go in regulation. 

Quotable

• "Seeing how we handled the adversity leading up to tonight, I knew we had a great chance to win," McClean would comment following the game. "It was another team win and I couldn't be prouder."
• "We always talk about handling adversity," Head Coach, Jeffrey Jean-Baptiste would explain following the win. "If you are able to handle adversity, you are able to accomplish anything."

Leading the Bulldogs

• Junior guard, Noah Shy, just missed a double-double finishing with nine points and 11 rebounds.
• Wright finished the night with nine points.