STORY COURTESY OF CUNY ATHLETICS SPORTS INFORMATION

The Baruch College Bearcats defeated the York Cardinals by a slim two point margin on Wednesday night in the first CUNYAC/Army ROTC semifinal matchup of the evening. Granville Gittens scored the game-winning field goal with 2.0 seconds remaining to give his team the 52-50 win and a berth in the CUNYAC Championship game.

"It's a bit of a relief," said 2015 CUNYAC Coach of the Year John Alesi. "That was such a hard game to play; we give all the credit in the world to York. I can't tell you how proud I am of our guys because tonight was not an easy night for us."

Cyril Reid got the evening's scoring started for York with a three pointer from the top of the arc. With York leading 5-2, Raymond De La Cruz hit a three of his own to even the score at 5-5. The teams would trade baskets and leads over the next few minutes with poor outside shooting plaguing both teams.

With the game tied at 9-9, the Cardinals began getting more inside pressure. A pair of field goals by Ryan St. John contributed to a 6-0 run by York.

A physical drive by 2015 CUNYAC Rookie of the Year Chimaechi Ekekeugbor resulted in a layup and subsequent free throw to end the string, and 2015 All-Star Granville Gittens capped a 17-3 run by Baruch with a free throw conversion at the 1:49 mark. During that run, the Cardinals had a stretch of nearly six minutes without scoring a single point until Terell Roper broke the silence with a pair of free throws.

York was able to close out the first half on a 6-2 run to pull within four of the Bearcats. The score stood at 28-24 with Baruch in the lead.

Ekekeugbor led the Bearcats at the half with nine points on 60% shooting. Gittens had seven points, and De La Cruz was halfway to a double-double with six points and six rebounds. St. John led the Cardinals with nine points, and Du'Quan Lawson contributed eight assists. Both teams shot close to 36% from the field.

Gittens got the second half scoring started with an easy layup after an assist down low near the baseline from Brian McMahon, but York responded with a 9-1 run highlighted by a three from Lawson to take a 33-31 lead.

With the game tied at 36-36 and York in the midst of another cold streak where they failed to score for over four minutes, Cyril Reid drilled his third three-pointer of the game to energize his team and the crowd. However, a bad turnover by Franklin Green led to Ekekeugbor scoring on an uncontested layup to cut back into the York lead, and Gittens eventually gave his team the lead at 40-39 after converting on two free-throw attempts.

The back-and-forth action continued when Reid was fouled while shooting a three-point attempt. He converted all three of his free throws and capped a streak where he scored nine points in a row for his team.

With the Bearcats leading 45-44 with 2:49 remaining, Ryan Markoe scored his first points of the game, drilling a wide open three-point shot. Reid answered one possession later with a three of his own. The teams remained separated by only one point with 1:51 remaining.

Trailing by three with 47.4 seconds remaining, Lawson made the first of two free throws. The second was rebounded by Terell Roper and thrown off a Baruch player to maintain the Cardinals' possession. York managed the clock and a baseline drive by Reid resulted in a game-tying layup.

With the shot clock turned off and the ball in Baruch's hands, Edward Roscigno carried it up the court and, not liking the defensive formation York was presenting, called time out.

With 6.7 seconds remaining, Markoe inbounded the ball to Gittens, who dribbled briefly and took a long jumpshot from just inside the arc. The shot was perfect and it gave the Bearcats a 52-50 lead with 2.0 seconds left on the clock.

York sent up a prayer from beyond half-court as time expired, but it was wide left and much too short. The Bearcats held on to advance to the 2015 CUNYAC/Army ROTC Championship game for the first time since 2009.

"We wanted to get Granville matched up with shooters around him," said Alesi when asked about the game-winning play call. "He's a big reason why we got here. I really felt it was his time and he made an incredible shot over a great defense."

Gittens finished the game a rebound short of a double-double. He scored a team-high 19 points in the effort. Cyril Reid led the Cardinals with 21 points and ten rebounds.

As a team, Baruch's free-throw shooting held them up as they went 18-22 from the line. Both teams shot 28.6% from three point range. No team led by more than eight points during the game, and there were a combined nine lead changes throughout the course of the game.

Baruch's victory ensures that there will be a new Champion this season on Friday night at 8:30pm. The Finals will be televised on ESPN3.