On January 22 the Lightning defeated York College to move to 5-2 in the City University of New York Athletic Conference and seemed primed to host a first round game once the CUNYAC Championships got under way.

Fast forward to Friday night after Lehman was handed a 64-50 defeat by host Baruch College, the team's fourth consecutive in conference following losses to the College of Staten Island, New York City College of Technology, and the City College of New York, and suddenly the tenor surrounding the team has changed.

Facing a Bearcats team looking to prove the first meeting between the teams – an 85-68 Lehman win in the Bronx – was an aberration, the Lightning never got on track, falling behind by double digits 10 minutes into the game.

With Lehman's top three scorers – Samuel Batista, Victor Garcia, and Jonathan DeJesus – shooting a combined 5-for-20 in the first half, the Bearcats managed to extend their lead to 30-12 following Tammer Farid's three-pointer with 6:36 remaining. A 9-2 run by the Lightning to close the half helped cut the deficit to 32-21 in favor of Baruch.

Right out of the intermission, however, Baruch junior Chris Beauchamp canned three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to grow the lead back to 17 and plant a seed of doubt in the minds of the Lightning players that this was not going to be their night. The Bearcats continued to land body blows in the form of three-pointers by Lionel Hillaire and Farid, who each connected from deep to push Baruch's lead to its largest of the game, 46-25, with 14:49 remaining.

The Bearcats were never threatened the remainder of the way, eventually closing out the 14-point win that pushes them to the top of the CUNYAC North with a 6-4 conference record.

Lehman drops to 5-6 in the conference and will hope to find its mojo in the final two games of the regular season against Hunter on February 7 and John Jay on February 12.

In the loss, the Lightning was led by freshman Stanley Stephens, who scored 11 points. The trio of Batista, Garcia and DeJesus finished 5-for-27 from the field for 13 points.

Beauchamp paced the Bearcats with 17 points and was joined in double figures by Farid with 15 points.