Baruch (21-6), who hasn’t been in a CUNYAC final since 1995, cut down Lehman in the second half, holding the Lightning to 24 second-half points and forcing 20 turnovers in the latter period. The Bearcats will face the winner of the second semifinal of the evening, #2 Staten Island (17-8) against #3 John Jay College (16-10).
The Lightning, who forced the action over the entire first half, were led by junior guard Kathy Santiago (Norman Thomas / New York, NY), who paced all scorers with eight points (she finished with 12) to gave Lehman its’ largest first-half lead (11 points) on a jumper with 7:41 remaining making the score 17-6.
Sophomores Kimberly Kelly (Paul Robeson / Brooklyn, NY) and Maria Loor (Newtown / Queens, NY) each had six points and seven boards at the break, as Lehman held a 27-20 advantage, despite losing sophomore guard Tiara Carroll (Scanlan / Bronx, NY) to injury during the period.
CUNYAC Player of the Year Chiresse Paradise (Rich Central / Chicago, IL) led the Bearcats with eight points at halftime. Paradise ended up with 12 points for the victors.
"We bounced back from the worst first half we had all season,” continued Joseph. “We rushed our shots and didn’t allow our defense to work properly. We’re excited at the opportunity to play for the championship on Friday.”
But the Bearcats responded in the final half with a 20-2 run over the first seven minutes to put the Midtown Manhattan school up for good.
“We knew that we would wear them down over the forty minutes because of our defensive pressure,” said CUNYAC Coach of the Year Machli Joseph, whose team enjoyed a 69-44 win over eighth-seeded York College in the
quarterfinals.
“After Carroll, who’s a catalyst for them went down, they began to run out of options.”
Sally Nnamani (Warwick Valley / New York, NY) the CUNYAC Rookie of the Year, was held to only 6 points (she averages 16.0) after finishing with 18 in Lehman’s 66-65 quarterfinal win over Hunter College three days earlier. Loor, who fouled out of her second straight CUNYAC tournament game, had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Kelly concluded with 13 points off the bench.
Junior all-star forward Racquel Reid (Washington Irving / New York) led the Bearcats with 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Sophomore guard Naesha Tyler-Moore (Rich Central / Chicago, IL) also scored 11 points and had six steals, and junior forward Ally Stamatiades (Bryant / Astoria, NY) added 10 points, eight rebounds and five steals for Baruch, while senior guard Diane Ramirez (Francis Lewis / Sunnyside, NY) had ten points and a tournament-high eight steals (Baruch finished with 28 as a team).