York Cardinals Men’s Basketball Falls to Hunter Hawks in CUNYAC Playoffs

By Alexander Jaiserie

The York Cardinals Men’s Basketball team made their second straight appearance in the CUNY Athletic Conference Playoffs only to come up short and have their season end with a 93-81 loss. The fourth seed Cardinals battled the fifth seed Hunter Hawks in a fast paced and aggressive start to the playoff season.

The first half consisted of multiple scoring runs from both sides and a package of fouls to get both teams into the bonus early on. Although both teams scored 24 points off free throws, the Cardinals failed to capitalize on their 51 trips to the free throw line, shooting a team average of 58.5 FT%. The Cardinals went into halftime down one possession with a score line of 48-45.

Coming out of the halftime locker room huddle, the Cardinals and Hawks traded scoring runs once again, resulting in multiple lead changes. The pace made the outcome of the game unpredictable, putting pressure on both teams to remain efficient and endurant. The Cardinals began to experience fatigue and loss of momentum within the final 7 minutes of the game. Trailing by 13 points from a 20-2 run by the Hawks, the Hawks put the game out of reach for the Cardinals.

Taking a look at the collective stat line, which is available on the York Cardinal’s Athletics page. it’s clear where the Cardinals showed deficiencies during the game. The Lack of bench use was evident in the scoring and physical department for the Cardinals. York players were physically fatigued towards the end of the game. While York used less substitutions, the team pushed the ball more aggressively upcourt outscoring Hunter (32-24) on fast breaks and (46-16) in the paint. Whereas the Hawks bench outscored the Cardinals bench (46-15), The Hawks created more open shots than YorkCollege with a (22-16) edge in assists and also held a (17-3) advantage in three point shots made.

“I’m not much of a sports person but it’s nice to have events like this on campus especially when you have to be at school on a Saturday afternoon. It’s different from the gloomy, quiet atmosphere of the library,” said Anna Singh, a York College junior. “I don’t know anything about how basketball works, like the rules or how the scoring works but seeing the back and forth between both teams definitely gets your adrenaline going even if you have no idea about what’s really happening.”

York College Cardinals Athletics stream their games live on YouTube when active.