Boxscore
OLD WESTBURY, NY (
www.oldwestburypanthers.com) – The SUNY College at Old Westbury men’s basketball team survived a nail biter against No. 8 seeded Medgar Evers, 74-71, to advance to the semi-final round of the ECAC Metro Tournament for a Saturday game against the Baruch Bearcats. Old Westbury (21-7) notched their 21st win of the season, setting a new single-season record for head coach Bernard Tomlin. Medgar Evers ended their season with a 13-14 record.
Medgar Evers opened the game scoring the first four points. Old Westbury responded with an 11-2 run to take their largest lead of the opening half, 11-6 (+5) with 16:35 remaining. Medgar Evers countered by scoring 11 of the next 17 points, stretching their largest lead to five with 10:36 left. Old Westbury outscored Medgar Evers 16-9 over the final 9:26 to grab a 33-31 lead as both teams headed to the locker room at half time.
Trailing 39-37 with 16:58 left in the second half, Old Westbury went on a 12-2 and never fell behind. The Cougars tied the game at 10:34 (49-49) and 8:52 (51-51). Old Westbury then went on a 13-5 run to take a 64-56 lead with 5:08 remaining on the second half clock. The offensive spurt included seven points from
Kristopher Afum, who knocked down a pair of three-pointers over the 3:44 run.
Jason Kondra converted a pair of free-throws with 2:17 left, giving Old Westbury a 72-67 lead. Jovan Deare scored four of his game-high 18 points in the final 1:06 that cut the deficit down to one, 72-71, with 27 ticks left on the clock.
Patrick Bonna sank a pair from the line to put Old Westbury up by three, 74-71 before Medgar Evers missed two three-point attempts and a layup over the final nine seconds.
Lester Prosper’s 16 points (8-of-13 FG) and two blocked shots in 22 minutes of court time paced Old Westbury.
Patrick Bonna finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists while
Kristopher Afum added 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range to go with two steals.
Shane DeNully handed out a game-high 10 assists in addition to five rebounds, four points and three steals.
Jason Kondra and
Hakiem George scored nine points off the bench as
Hilton Sneed contributed eight.
Jovan Deare posted a double-double to lead the way for Medgar Evers, combining 18 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out. Kallai Sharpe followed with 13 points and four assists, including three triples. Shawn Bassereth came off the bench to score nine points and Marquis Jones added eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
Old Westbury was outrebounded, 43-32, including 17-10 off the offensive glass. The 17 offensive rebounds for Medgar Evers were turned into 17 second chance points. The Panthers outshot the Cougars 40 percent (28-of-70) to 39.4 (28-of-71) from inside the arc and 36.8 percent (7-of-19) to 28.6 percent (6-of-21) from three-point range. Medgar Evers sank 9-of-10 (90%) from the stripe compared to 11-of-14 (78.6%) from the free throw line. Old Westbury’s defense forced 16 turnovers, leading to 15 points while Medgar Evers scored eight points off 10 Panther miscues.
The Skyline Conference regular season champions, Old Westbury will next face the Baruch Bearcats in the semi-final round of the ECAC Metro Tournament on Saturday, March 6 at the Clark Athletic Center. The game will tip at 12:30 p.m. and NYU and York will battle it out in the other semi-final game at 2:30 p.m. in Old Westbury. Both games will be streamed live on OWWR (Old Westbury Web Radio) at
http://137.139.230.247/radio. Please visit
www.oldwestburypanthers.com for more information on men's basketball or any of the other Panther athletic teams.