The Baruch Bearcats shot 53 percent (28-53) and held off a late rally by John Jay College of Criminal Justice to record a 72-62 Battle of Lexington victory in front of a capacity crowd of 1,200 fans on Thursday night in the ARC Arena.

With the result, the Bearcats improve to 8-4 in CUNYAC (third place tie) and 14-10 overall on the regular season. The visiting Bloodhounds drop to 3-9 in CUNYAC and 9-15 overall.

Prior to the game, the Bearcats honored seniors David Chestnut, William Falkenhainer, Arki Wisnu, Sean Loftus, Tammer Farid and Lionel Hilaire playing in their final regular season home game.

As expected, a full house watched all the action as part of an evening that featured a marching band (East Coast Ocean of Soul, Medgar Evers College Prep H.S.), steppers (Baruch's One Step Ahead), cheerleaders (Baruch's team), and an exciting ultimate fan challenge that was won by a student group called the "Crazies".

During the game, the Bearcats opened up a 33-18 advantage with 5:02 left in the first half, but John Jay battled back and connected on a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut the score to 35-26 at halftime.

During the second half, the Bearcats continued to lead and were up by as much as 10 points (62-52) with 5:02 remaining. John Jay rallied late with a 10-3 run to cut the score to 65-62 with 1:26 left.

Baruch quickly responded with a three-point play by Hilaire and a driving layup by Beauchamp to build the lead back up to eight points (70-62) with 46 seconds left.

John Jay could not score on their next two possessions and Beauchamp went to the free throw line to connect on two free throws to complete the 72-62 victory.  

The Baruch bench outscored John Jay, 19-6, and also used their defense to keep John Jay to a stunning 0-for-17 from 3-point range. 

Beauchamp led Baruch with 17 points (5-9 fg), while Farid and Wisnu finished with 14 points each. Loftus recorded 10 points (two dunks) and six rebounds. Falkenhainer had a solid evening with five points (first career 3-pointer) and eight total rebounds.

Jamar Harry led the Bloodhounds with a double-double of 22 points and 15 rebounds.

The men's basketball team will quickly return to action and finish their regular season schedule on Friday, February 11th, with a 7:00 pm CUNYAC road contest at rival Hunter College.