New York, NY – Senior guard Mona McKenzie (New York, NY/Park West) had a team high 16 points and sophomore guard Shay Branch-El-Vielot (Cambria Heights, NY/Canarsie) finished with 13 points and ten rebounds to help lead the fourth-seeded Hawks past the fifth-seeded City College of New York, 57-47, in a CUNY Athletic Conference Quarterfinal matchup Sunday evening at the Hunter Sportsplex.

CCNY would scored the first basket of the game, but then watched the Hawks score 12 unanswered in a five minute time span to fall behind 12-2. The Beavers then cut the lead to just three on a jumper by freshman forward Nadia Tijani (Bronx, NY/DeWitt Clinton) with just 36 seconds to play in the half. Hunter followed this up with a three-pointer and a made free-throw to push the lead back up to seven heading into the intermission.

The second half was owned by Hunter, who never trailed against since CCNY's 2-0 lead in the first. Hunter would extent the lead to 18 points, 50-32 with 5:23 left in the game, but the Beavers continued to fight behind the play of freshman guard Anika Rivera (Bronx, NY/Msgr. Scanlon) who finished with a game high 18 points and Tijani who had a monster double-double of 17 points and 25 rebounds.

Hunter Head Coach Vana Loukissas had the following to say about her first career postseason coaching victory, “The team played well as a whole, we had some bench players come up big and good things began to happen. Also, Mona and Shay did a great job on defense, guarding the conference's Rookie of the Year in Rivera.”

“We came out strong from start to finished, played heart, didn't give up and played Hunter basketball,” commented Branch-El-Vielot.

Hunter now advances to Wednesday's Semifinal matchup where they will face the top seeded Baruch College at 5:30 p.m. at the Nat Holman Gymnasium on the campus of City College of New York. Tickets for Wednesday's game will be available on Tuesday and Wednesday in room WB317 of the Hunter Sportsplex.