JAMAICA, N.Y. – Defense shined at the York College Gymnasium tonight and the City College of New York (9-13, 5-9 CUNYAC) picked up eight steals and forced 22 turnovers to turn away the Cardinals of York College (9-13, 5-8 CUNYAC), 50-47 for its second consecutive conference victory.
It has been a tale of two halves for the Beavers as CCNY is now 4-2 in its late six City University of New York Athletic Conference games after beginning CUNYAC play 1-7.
The win clinches a playoff birth for the Beavers, marking the first time that the men's basketball team earns a trip to the CUNYAC tournament since the 2009-10 season.
Jordan Ortega once again was dominant and has been one of the main reasons for the Beavers turnaround, finishing with 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting, 11 coming in the second half, and adding seven rebounds and Terence Johnston recorded 10 points for CCNY.
The York College bench outshined the Beavers second unit, outscoring City College, 18-3, and entered the half with a two-point lead over CCNY. However with a tied game, things would change early in the second half as the Beavers scored nine unanswered points to take a nine point, 40-31, with 8:36 remaining in the contest. Ortega took charge of the game and scored 11 points in the second half to finish with his third consecutive 15-plus point performance.
CCNY and York would then trade baskets and the Beavers preserved its lead to defeat the Cardinals by one possession.
The Beavers return to Nat Holman Gymnasium for one game and host Lehman College on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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Notes: The Beavers are now 3-1 when Ortega scored 15 or more points and are now in position to finish as high as fourth in the CUNYAC regular season standings… Tonight's win was the first win for the Beavers when scoring less than 60 points in a game and CCNY is now 3-1 when holding opponents to under 60 points/contest… The 77 percent shooting from the free throw line is the second highest for CCNY this season and first since Nov. 24.