The Bulldogs of Brooklyn College defeated the Baruch College Bearcats, 62-55, to win the CUNYAC Men's Basketball Championship on Friday night at York College.

The Bearcats will now wait to see if they will receive a berth to play in the ECAC Division III Postseason Championship that begins with first-round action at higher seeds on Wednesday, March 4. The bracket will be announced by the ECAC on Monday afternoon, March 2.

The championship started with the Bulldogs scoring the first 10 points, but the Bearcats never lost their composure and came right back with 10 straight points of their own.

The Bulldogs broke the tie at 12-10 and led the rest of the first half en route to building a 13-point lead (32-19) after a three by Jordan Wright with five minutes left.

The Bearcats cut the deficit to nine points (36-27) on a layup by George Smyth, Jr. right before the halftime whistle.

The start of the second half saw the Bulldogs maintaining the lead at double-digits until some impressive shooting, perhaps among the best in championship history in terms of seconds, by Ryan Graziano.

Down 48-36, Graziano put on a highlight-reel show by hitting three 3-pointers in a span of 75 seconds to take away the momentum from the Bulldogs and put the Bearcats right back into the game at 48-45 with 9:46 left.

The Bearcats stayed closed and finally took their first lead in the late stages of the game on a pair of free throws by Adnan Bajrami with 3:26 left to make it 54-53. 
 
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs scored nine of the final 10 points and limited the Bearcats to one free throw during the final three minutes to finish their Cinderella story as the victorious fifth-seed.

Bajrami led the Bearcats with 12 points, while George Smyth, Jr. grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds in the tough neutral site loss. Smyth, Jr. and Michael Richards (11 points) were each named to the All-Tournament team. 

Anthony McClean led Brooklyn with 16 points and was named the Tournament MVP. He scored 10 of his game-high 16 points in the second half.

2020 CUNYAC Men's Basketball All-Tournament Team
Most Valuable Player: Anthony McClean, Brooklyn
Noah Shy, Brooklyn
Michael Tesoriero, Brooklyn
George Smyth, Jr., Baruch
Michael Richards, Baruch
Jayson Brower, John Jay
Tommy Batista, Lehman