Box Score
New York, NY – On Friday, February 11, the men's basketball team played host to arch rivals Baruch College in their final home contest of the season. After Hunter jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead, the Bearcats responded with a 9-0 run of their own as they swapped the lead on three occasions in the first half. Down by eight at the half, a combine 28 points from Joel Carda and Anthony Uter on the game brought the Hawks back in mix as they slowly chipped away at the lead and eventually took over with just over three minutes left. However, it was the Bearcats who prevailed in down the stretch as late free throws and big three pointers put the Hawks away 68-61. With the loss, Hunter drops to 12-12, 7-5 CUNYAC while Baruch moves to 15-10, 9-4 CUNYAC.
A feed by Mark Courtein into center Panagiotis Koutsoloukas for a quick two got the Hawks on the board first. Cerda, draining two attempts from the charity stripe and then scoring on a layup on the next possession, put his team up 6-0 in the first 1:14 of the game. The lead would not last long as Mickey Abbatiello put the Bearcats on the board with a jumper and two free throw shots by Sean Loftus would get the tie and go ahead point, 8-9, at the 14:15 mark. A Cerda three pointer capped a mini-run that put Hunter up five, but was erased with eight unanswered Bearcat points, capped with a Chris Beauchamp layup.
Baruch would increase their lead to as much as 12 points with less than a minute to play, but late free throws by senior Jason Cole chopped the lead down to eight as the Hawks headed into the locker room down 35-27.
Opening up the first seven minutes of the second half, Hunter was outscored 10-4 which saw them in a 12 point deficit, but a free throw shot by Cole sparked a change in momentum as the Hawks began to cut the lead down and eventually tie the game at 48. Jeffrey Daza made the first of two free throw shots that knotted the game, and connected on the second one to give his team the lead. The Bearcats kept at it and regained the lead, but John Akinyemi connected on free throw shots that knotted and put the score in the Hawks favor, 54-53 with 3:21 left to play. However, a clutch three pointer from CJ Jurewicz-Johnson shifted the momentum back in his team's favor as Beauchamp would add to the lead with another shot from behind the arc to put the Hawks down seven with just 90 seconds left to play. Baruch sunk five of their final seven free throws in the late seconds of the game as time would run out with the scoreboard in favor of the Bearcats.
Uter had a big game as he posted 16 points, nine rebounds and five blocks while Cerda chipped in with 12 points. Beauchamp led all comers with 29 points while teammates Hilaire and Loftus had 14 and 12 points respectively.
The Hawks will close out the 2010-11 season and look to get above .500 in when they take on the Cardinals of York College in a makeup game on February 14 in Jamaica, NY at 8:00 pm.
