The Baruch College Bearcats lost 78-71 to the Lightning of Lehman College on Wednesday night in the Bronx.

Raymond De La Cruz hit a jumper to give the Bearcats a 62-60 lead with 4:17 remaining, but the Lightning responded by scoring the next seven points to stay ahead 67-62 with 2:12 left on the clock.

The Bearcats were forced to play catch up in the final two minutes as Matt Feldman connected on a 3-pointer to get the team as close as 72-71 with 13 seconds left, but the Lightning closed out the final seconds by hitting all six of their free throws to walk away with the victory.

Both teams shot the ball well, but the Lightning hit 6-of-14 from 3-point range and were successful on 20-of-23 attempts from the free throw line to squeeze out the victory on their home court.

Raymond De La Cruz led the visiting Bearcats with 18 points. Edward Roscigno tallied a season-high 13 points and Ryan Markoe recorded a career-high 10 points in the tough loss.

Jonathan Greenfield scored 27 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Lightning. He was named the John Conboy Memorial Game MVP.

The MVP Memorial Award is in honor of John Conboy, who played three years for Baruch and his senior year for Lehman during the early part of the 1970s. He later served as Head Coach for the Baruch women's basketball team during the 1984-86 seasons.

Conboy passed away, but is still fondly remembered by alumni and friends of the two schools. As a result, the two teams honor him with this annual award given to the top player in one of the regular season games played between these two teams.

The men's basketball team will continue their schedule on Friday night with a 7:30 pm CUNYAC home contest against Medgar Evers College.