The Baruch men's basketball team held off a big second-half rally by Farmingdale State for a tough 73-72 win on Wednesday night on Long Island.

The visiting Bearcats started on fire jumping out to a 24-4 lead shooting 50 percent (17-34 fg) and used strong defense to limit the Rams to only 25 percent shooting (8-32 fg) for a 44-26 advantage at the break.

The second half was a different story again as the Rams from the Skyline Conference took 17 more shots and managed to slowly chip away at their deficit until they tied the game at 63 to the delight of their home fans with 4:53 left on the clock.

The two teams exchanged leads over the final minutes and rookie Nicholas Lam scored a pair of free throws with 1:05 left to tie the contest again at 72.

The Rams missed a chance to go ahead with 36 second sleft and turned over the ball giving the Bearcats the final possession.

Dylan Minnick set up Brandon Goldberg who went one-on-one with the defense and was fouled with three seconds left.  

Goldberg connected on one-of-two free throws and then successfully guarded the opponent with the final shot to help the Bearcats walk away with a solid one-point victory at one of the toughest places to win in the Skyline Conference.

Five different players scored in double-figures led by Gerard Nicholson's 18 points. Goldberg, who recorded his fourth straight double-double (13 rebounds), along with Jack Gordon finished with 16 points each. Lam and Minnick scored 10 points each.

Michael Notias led the home team with 21 points.

The Bearcats will hit the road this weekend to Massachusetts for a contest at Clark University on Saturday afternoon.