Brooklyn, NY --- The Brooklyn College Men's Basketball team made the short trip up Bedford Avenue to take on borough and CUNY Athletic Conference rival Medgar Evers College on Tuesday night. In the end, it would be the visiting Bulldogs who would pull out a 75-71 victory to top the Cougars.

With the win, BC improves to 2-5 overall on the season and 1-2 in the CUNYAC; while Medgar Evers drops to 4-5 overall on the year and an even 2-2 in conference play.

Brooklyn was led by senior forward Steven Grant's team-high 18 points. Classmate Kavon Baker added 16 points, while sophomore Steven Diaz and senior Jeffrey Noel each finished the night with 11 points apiece. Junior Maurice Holden dished out a team-best five assists, to go with six steals and seven points, while freshman Egzon Gjonbalaj grabbed a team-leading seven rebounds and added eight points.

For Medgar Evers, the Cougars were paced by Winston Douglas' game-high 26 points. Douglas also recorded 13 rebounds to register a double-double. Jovan Deare also finished the night with a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds, while added seven assists. Kayode Prime (12 points and eight rebounds) and Valin Williams (11 points and nine rebounds) also had solid games.

The game featured tight play throughout, as the contest featured 13 lead changes and nine ties.

The Bulldogs would control most of the first half leading by as many as nine points on two occasions. After a Noel free throw put BC up 33-24 with 5:07 remaining in the opening period, the Cougars would close out the half on a 12-4 run to cut their deficit to one, 37-36, as the teams headed into the halftime break. Deare and Prime combined to score six of the 12 points in the run.

Coming out of the intermission break, the Cougars would set the tone early, scoring the first seven points of the half, to take a six point advantage, 43-37, with 18:02 on the clock.

Medgar would lead for much of the second half until a layup from senior Abdul Lanlokun tied the game at 50 all with 12:00 minutes remaining in the game. From there, BC seemed to take momentum as a layup from freshman Nicholas Grasso and a three from Diaz put the Bulldogs up five, 55-50, at the 9:42 mark.

The Cougars however would not go down lightly, as the home team would later regain the lead on a pair of free throws from Deare.

Following a three from Douglas, which put Medgar up five, 64-59, with 4:18 left in the game, Brooklyn used a quick 6-0 run to regain the led at 65-64 with just under 2 minutes remaining. From there the teams would once again exchange lead changes as the final outcome would come down to the final minute of play.

After a Williams layup put the Cougars up twp. 67-65, with 1:24 left, the Bulldogs staged one final push to seize victory, as BC went on a 7-0 run to take a 72-67 lead with just 25 seconds left in the game. Brooklyn would hit key free throws down the stretch to eventually take the 75-71 win.

For the game, BC shot 43.6% (24-55) from the field, including going 6-for-17 from three (35.3%). The Bulldogs also shot 72.4% (21-29) from the charity stripe. The stingy Brooklyn defense also racked up 17 steals and forced Medgar into 29 turnovers, which led to 24 BC points.

The Cougars shot 41.3% (26-63) from the field and 31.8% (7-22) from three. Medgar converted 50.0% (12-24) from the foul line. The home team also held the rebounding edge 51-30, which led to a 19-8 advantage in second chance points and a 32-28 edge in points in the paint for Medgar Evers. The Cougars also scored 22 points off of 21 BC turnovers.

Brooklyn will next be in action on Saturday, December 29th, when BC will be on the road to take on Yeshiva University in non-conference action. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 pm.