Box Score Old Westbury - Baruch (Boxscore) 

NYU - York (Boxscore)

OLD WESTBURY, NY (www.oldwestburypanthers.com) – The top seeded SUNY College at Old Westbury men's basketball team outscored the No. 5 seeded Baruch Bearcats 44-43 in the second half but was unable to overcome a 45-37 halftime deficit as the Bearcats captured an 88-81 victory over host Old Westbury in the semi-final round of the ECAC Metro Tournament on Saturday afternoon at the Clark Athletic Center.

Baruch advances to the championship game and will play the No. 3 seed York Cardinals at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon at the Clark Athletic Center in Old Westbury, New York. York defeated No. 2 seeded NYU, 68-61. Old Westbury ends its season with a 21-8 mark, most wins in a single-season for head coach Bernard Tomlin.

Old Westbury lead by as many as seven points (10-3) in the opening minutes until Baruch put together a 12-4 run, which was capped by a jumper by Tammer Farid at the 14:11 mark to take their first lead. Both teams then traded baskets until 10:18 when Sean Loftus dropped in a layup to give the Bearcats the lead for good. Lionel Hilaire knocked down a jumper with 1:27 left on the first half clock to give Baruch their largest lead of the half, 45-35. Baruch went into the locker room with a 45-37 lead at halftime.

Patrick Bonna and Lester Prosper each scored layups to cut the halftime deficit down to four, 45-41 with 18:19 remaining in the second half. George Kunkel scored six of Baruch's 10 points as part of a 10-3 Bearcat run that put the visitors up by 11 (55-44) with 14:09 left. Baruch pushed the lead to as many as 14 points to take a 74-60 lead with 4:52 remaining in the second half. Old Westbury responded with a 13-3 run (7 points by Bill Reese) over the next 3:10 to pull within four, 77-73. Baruch outscored Old Westbury 11-8 over the final 1:29 to advance to the championship game.

Old Westbury was led by 21 points (8-of-16 FG) from Lester Prosper, while Patrick Bonna had 13, Hakiem George had 12 and Shane DeNully and Jason Kondra scored 10. Prosper hauled in a game-high 13 rebounds to post his fourth double-double over his last six games. George added five assists while Denully had two steals and Kristopher Afum finished with eight points and one steal.
Baruch was paced by 29 points from Lionel Hilaire, who hit 5-of-8 from three-point territory and 8-of-8 from the line in addition to five assists and four rebounds. Chris Beauchamp followed with 15 points and George Kunkel registered 10 points and six rebounds. Sean Loftus had two swats and scored eight points.

Old Westbury finished 27-of-69 from the field (39.1%) and made 7-of-25 three-point tries (28%). Old Westbury made 20-of-25 free-throws for the game. Baruch shot 58 percent from the floor (29-of-50) and was 10-of-20 (50%) from downtown. The Bearcats were also 20-of-21 (95.2%) at the line, including 18-of-19 in the second stanza. Baruch won the battle of the boards, 32-30, despite Old Westbury grabbing 14 offensive rebounds compared to five for the Bearcats. Those 14 offensive pull-downs for Old Westbury were turned into 13 second chance points while Baruch tallied eight.

Please visit www.oldwestburypanthers.com for more information on men's basketball or any of the other Panther athletic teams.