NEW YORK, NY (www.OLDWESTBURYPANTHERS.com) -The No. 2 SUNY College at Old Westbury men's basketball team advanced past No. 7 Baruch Bearcats with an 88-72 victory Wednesday evening in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Metro Region Championship Tournament on the road from the ARC Arena.  Old Westbury (23-4) advances to the semifinal round and will take on the No. 6 seeded New Jersey City Gothic Knights Saturday at Richard Stockton College in Galloway, New Jersey at 3 p.m..  Old Westbury's 23rd win on the season ties a program record set by the 1985-86 team that finished the year with a 23-5 mark.  Baruch closes out the season with a 17-11 record. 

Maxwell Attah scored back-to-back buckets to open the game as Old Westbury took a 4-0 lead.  Josh Hill's layup added to the lead before Brian McMahon hit the front end of free-throws to put Baruch on the board with Old Westbury holding a 6-1 advantage.  Old Westbury used an 11-2 run from 15:03 to 11:15 to go up 17-4.  Moments later, Kerel Mitchell sank a jumper to increase the lead to 15 points before Baruch trimmed the deficit down to nine with 9:16 remaining.  Old Westbury's lead swelled to as many 17 points with 2:38 left on a 10-2 spurt before Baruch closed out the final 1:29 with seven unanswered points to trail 38-28 at the break.   
The momentum carried into the second half for Baruch, using a 14-4 run over the opening 4:33 to knot the game at 42-all.  Tied at 44, Old Westbury's 14-1 run over the next 2:52 made it a 13 point game (58-45).  Baruch sliced the deficit down to eight points with 5:39 remaining before Old Westbury created separation with an 18-4 run from 5:31 to 1:19 to take a 22 point lead, their largest lead of the game. 

Kerel Mitchell poured in a game-high 20 points to go along with a career-best six steals to lead the Panthers.  Darnell Chavis and Tyrik Tucker followed with 18 and 15 points off the bench, respectively.  Rashawn McCarthy added 11 points, six rebounds and tied a career-high with six assists.  Josh Hill chipped in with 12 points and three steals.

Matas Rascius' 13 points led two other Bearcats in double-digit scoring.  Edward Roscigno nabbed a team-best five steals while Rascius paced Baruch with five rebounds. 

Old Westbury shot a sizzling 55 percent from the field (33-60), 84.2 percent from the free-throw line (16-19) and 37.5 percent from three-point territory (6-16).  Baruch hit 43.5 percent from the field (27-62), 33.3 percent from beyond the arc (8-24) and 62.5 percent from the charity stripe (10-16).  Old Westbury held a +13 rebounding margin (40-27) and scored 16 second chance points off 11 offensive boards.  Old Westbury's 20 turnovers resulted in 29 Bearcat points, the Panthers' third highest giveaway total on the season.    

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