CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK---For the first time since 1980, the Brooklyn College Women's Basketball team won the CUNYAC Championship, defeating the College of Staten Island, 59-50, in the tournament final this evening. With the win, the Bulldogs receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament! BC improves to 24-3 with the championship victory while CSI drops to 21-6 with the loss. Guiding his teams to the CUNYAC final five times in the last six years, it is BC Head Coach Alex Lang's first title in 16 years at the helm of the Brooklyn program.
"I'm so proud of my team, happy for my seniors, and excited to have the chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament," Coach Lang would exclaim after the win. "This team is special and I can't wait to see how they perform on the biggest stage. I'd like to thank our families, President Anderson, Athletic Director, Bruce Filosa, the BC Cheerleading team, and of course all of the fans that made this such a special night!"
Brooklyn freshman forward, Chanel Jemmott, had an answer for the Dolphins all evening long, garnering the game's MVP honors after finishing with a game-high 18 points, 14 rebounds (10 offensive), and two blocks.
"This feeling is nothing short of amazing," Jemmott would comment after the final buzzer. "I'm thankful for having teammates and coaching staff that has the utmost faith in me. We all worked so hard for this, it's well deserved."
CSI opened the second half with a 14-1 run to take its first lead since early in the first quarter, 30-29, with 4:58 left in the third quarter. Jemmott stopped the bleeding momentarily giving the Bulldogs back the lead, 31-30 with 4:22 left in the quarter. A 10-0 Brooklyn spurt highlighted by a Taylor George three-point make gave the Bulldogs the 43-33 advantage heading in to the final quarter and the lead for good!
Brooklyn continued its third quarter run into the fourth on a George three for the 48-35 lead with 7:03 left in regulation. George would finish with 15 points, shooting a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc for the evening.
The Bulldogs grabbed its largest lead of the game (19) with 2:40 remaining in the contest.
Brooklyn held CSI to 27% shooting from the field for the evening and limited the Dolphins' CUNYAC Player of the Year, Christina Pasaturo, to 4-24 from the floor.
The Dolphins struck first in the second quarter on a three buried by Angelique Price to cut the BC lead to 9-7 in the opening minute. Brooklyn answered with a pair of baskets to take a 13-7 lead with 7:30 left in the first half. A three drained by junior guard Alexandra Moogan gave BC a 20-12 lead with a little under four minutes to play in the first half. Jemmott extended the Bulldogs lead to ten with a pull-up jumper with 2:56 to go in the second period. Junior guard, Grace Martinez-Espina, joined the party in the second quarter, burying a straight-away three to give BC the 25-13 advantage with 2:22 left in the first half.
George ended the first half with a buzzer-beating three-pointer, giving BC the 28-16 halftime lead. Brooklyn closed out the quarter on a 15-4 run. Jemmott paced BC with eight halftime points while grabbing six boards.
The teams would feel each other out to start the game with the Dolphins taking a 4-3 lead through the first five minutes. Junior forward Jasmine Hansgen gave the Bulldogs its first lead of the game, 5-4, with a put-back lay-in with a little over four minutes to play in the first quarter. BC extended its run to 7-0 following a bucket in the paint finished by Jemmott to give the Bulldogs a 9-4 advantage heading into the second quarter. A defensive battle through the first quarter, the Bulldogs shot 21 percent from the field to CSI's 11 percent.
The Dolphins were led by Samantha Flecker's 16 point and 9 rebounds. Pasaturo finished with eight points and 11 boards.
BC senior guard and All-CUNYAC First Teamer, Karen Mak, finished with seven points, seven assists, and five rebounds.