BRONX, N.Y. - The duo of Jaleesa Gordon and Amanda De La Cruz combined for 47 points as the Lehman Lightning stunted a second half comeback attempt by the Hunter Hawks to pull out a 69-61 victory on Sunday afternoon at Mount Saint Michael Academy.

Lehman handed the Hawks just their second conference loss of the season, and improved its own standing to 7-4 in the City University of New York Athletic Conference.

In addition to Gordon's game-high 24-point effort, the Lightning senior also ripped down 19 rebounds.  De La Cruz finished just behind Gordon with 23 points and also handed out nine assists.

Both Megan McKenna (14 points, 11 rebounds) and Kristen Markoe (13 points, 14 rebounds) notched double-doubles for the Hawks, while Shatira Hamlet led the team with 19 points. 

Leading 34-24 after the first 20 minutes, the Lightning opened up a 44-29 lead 6:03 into the second half on a free throw by Shalaya Nieves.  Hunter would cut its deficit to three on three separate occasions over a one minute span that began with a layup by Hamlet with 7:39 remaining.  Two of those times Gordon had the answer with baskets of her own.  Alicia McDaniel provided the other run-stopping bucket to give Lehman a 55-50 lead before Chris Mary Martinez canned a clutch three-pointer and De La Cruz connected on a jumper to give the Lightning part of its cushion back.

The Hawks made a final push and trailed 65-61 after a jumper by Markoe with 1:19 to go, but the Hunter came up empty on two straight possessions.  De La Cruz proceeded to tally the clincher, a basket with 46 seconds remaining to push the lead to 67-61.

With just one conference game left on the schedule against John Jay next Saturday, the Lightning appears to be locked into nothing worse than the No. 4 seed in the upcoming CUNYAC Championships pending how the College of Staten Island (4-4 CUNYAC) does in its three upcoming games against York, Medgar Evers and Brooklyn.