New York, NY – Hunter College's men's basketball team's run towards winning their first CUNY Athletic Conference Championships in ten years was halted on Tuesday evening by the two-time defending champion York College Cardinals who's balanced offense and inside presence proved to be too much for the Hawks despite senior guard
Marlon Smith's (Bronx, NY/Archbishop Molloy) 40 point performance as Hunter fell 89-77 in the Semifinals of the CUNYAC Tournament at Nat Holman Gymnasium on the campus of City College of New York.
Hunter opened the game with a three-pointer from senior guard
Gerard Ciarleglio (Bradenton, FL/Cardinal Mooney) which was followed by eight points from
Smith to give the Hawks an 11-4 lead just three minutes into the half. York then answered back with a 10-1 run to take a 14-11 lead with 14:23 on the clock.
Smith and
Ciarleglio would connect on two more from downtown to give Hunter an 18-14 lead with 10:45 left to play before York surmounted a 14-0 run engineered by the shooting of junior forward
Aaron Wilson (Brooklyn, NY/Thomas Jefferson) who scored eight points of those points in just two minutes to push York ahead 31-20 with 4:30 left in the first stanza. After falling behind by as much as 14 points, Hunter cut the lead down to single digits on a three from
Smith, seconds before the intermission.
York controlled the second half, despite Hunter making several runs to coming to within four points one and five points on two occasions. Missing most of the second with foul trouble,
Wilson would scored just four in the second to finish with 15 points on the day. The Cardinals got big contributions from senior forward
Chris Roberts (Jamaica, NY/Springfield Gardens) who finished with a team high 24 points and 12 rebounds, and freshman forward
Omar Phipps (Laurelton,NY/St. Johns Prep) added 19 points and seven rebounds.
Junior forward
Frantz Millien (Rockland, NY/North Rockland) finished the game with a double-double, scoring 14 points and pulling down ten rebounds, while
Ciarleglio finished with ten points and four assists.
Smith's 40 points is the fourth highest single-game point total in CUNYAC Tournament history.
The Hawks finish the 2007-08 season with a 13-14 overall record and advanced to the Semifinals of the CUNYAC Tournament for the first time in ten years.
– Hunter –
