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Press Release

This is a press release submitted by one of the schools playing in this game. It has not been edited or approved by D3hoops.com
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NEW YORK, NY — Number one-seeded Baruch College played all season determined to clinch the school’s second City University of New York Athletic Conference/Con Edison Women's Basketball Championship in the last three seasons; tonight was no exception, as the Bearcats beat their arch-rival Lehman College 71-60, in the final of the 2008 tournament at CCNY’s Nat Holman Gymnasium, and earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Championships.

“We played with so much passion,” said Baruch head coach Machli Joseph, the CUNYAC Coach of the Year, whose team was never seriously challenged in the earlier rounds of the championship with a 74-47, semifinal victory over No. 4-seed Hunter College and a 102-49 win over Medgar Evers College in the quarterfinals. “In a late timeout I reminded the team that its about character and they withstood the test and pulled it out. When Lehman started to comeback, sure we thought about last year, but the seniors and Monique Salmon pulled it out.”

Baruch (22-6), stormed out to an 8-0 lead and never allowed Lehman (17-11), the defending champions (with a 52-51 win in last year’s final) to get a lead. Neither Sally Nnamani, the two-time CUNYAC Player of the Year or 6’0 center Whitney Barnes (who had 25 points and 17 rebounds in their 78-66 semifinal win over the College of Staten Island) started for the Lightning, who were scoreless for the first 4:34 of the game. But Barnes, Nnamani and Monique Sampson, the 2007 Tournament Most Valuable Player each chipped in with a bucket over the next two minutes to pull the Lightning as close as they got, trailing only 10-6.

The Bearcats responded quickly to the mini-run with a 13-0 spurt over the next five minutes to take a commanding 23-6 lead, and from that point on the game was never in question. In that run, Baruch’s three all-conference players took the complete control of the game. Sophomore forward Kaleia Davis knocked in three jumpers, and the run was capped by layups from senior forward Dominique McClendon and senior guard Chiresse Paradise.

Lehman struggled offensively for the entire first half, as Baruch concentrated on stopping the Lightning in the paint and allowed the bigger, stronger Lightning to shoot from the outside, as they shot 1-12 from long range in the biggest game of the season. Baruch went into the break up 34-19 via seven points and five boards from Paradise and the aforementioned six points from Davis. Nnamani led her squad with seven points and six rebounds and senior guard Kim Kelly (10 total points) chipped in six points, but Barnes had only four points (on 2-4 shooting from the field).

“We worked hard tonight to pull the game out,” said Paradise the Tournament’s Most Valuable Player, who finished with a game-high 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds and who was injured in last year’s final. “We just want to take this and continue to roll. This is an unbelievable feeling to win the championship.”

The Lightning came back from as many as 22 points down (47-25) with 14:12 left to pull within three points inside the two-minute mark on a Tiara Carroll three-pointer. That capped a two-and-a-half minute 10-0 furious run when it looked like Baruch might suffer the same fate as last season, as the Bearcats’ last basket of the 2007 game was made with 12:33 remaining. But Baruch freshman point guard Monique Salmon nailed two free throws with 1:18 left and followed that with a strong drive over two Lehman players to put the lead back to seven points, 67-60.

“We fought all the way to the end,” said Lehman head coach Eric Harrison. “We battled back from 22 points down and gave it every effort, but it was too big of a hill to climb back from.”

Hunter sophomore forward Andrea Buckham (17 points, 14 rebounds in the semis) and Staten Island junior forward Megan Sullivan (16 points, 10 rebounds in the semis) joined McClendon (10 points, 12 caroms) and Paradise from Baruch and Nnamani and Barnes (10 points, 11 boards) from Lehman on the 2008 CUNYAC / Con Edison All-Tournament Team.

Press release submitted by Baruch on Feb 23 2008 at 01:04 PM

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