York opened up the game with a three-pointer and never looked back in the first half, holding a ten-point advantage, 31-21 at the half, largely behind 10 points from senior all-star guard Shayne Smith (Dwight School / Brooklyn, NY). Junior swingman Teron Simpson (Cardozo / East New York, NY) was perfect off the bench (3-3 from the field and 2-2 from the line for eight points), as the Cardinals shot 37.0% in the period compared to Baruch’s 27.3% (6-22 FG).
CUNYAC first-team all-star guard Louie Karis (Xaverian / Brooklyn, NY) led the Bearcats at the break with six points.
"We said at halftime that there’s four more runs left in this game- two by them and two by us," said York head coach Ron St. John, in his 18th season is the only coach to win a title at the Jamaica, NY school. "The key was to counter their runs with ours and we managed to do that this evening."
In the second half, Baruch slowly climbed back in the game, tying it for the first time since a 3-3 tie on two free throws by junior guard Carl Emengo (Canarsie / Brooklyn, NY) with 5:56 to make the score 48-48. But Simpson continued his solid play in with nine second half points, including a three-pointer in response to put York back up 51-48 at the 5:40 mark. Simpson concluded the game with 17 points off the bench before fouling out in the final 1:30.
A Reyaad Mohamed (T. Edison / Ozone Park, NY) trey less than a minute later put York back up by four 54-50 and the Bearcats just couldn’t get close enough again to keep it a one-score game.
Baruch all-star forward Cheick Fadika (Petit / Abidjan, Ivory Coast), who had only four points at intermission, scored 11 points in the second half to lead the Bearcats’ charge, nailing a three-pointer to make it a five point margin with 0:42 remaining, but he also fouled out with 0:30 left and the score 68-59 after a series of free throws to put the game out of reach. He also finished with a team-high 10 rebounds.
Smith, who went 9-10 from the line in the second half, was named Tournament Most Valuable Player with a game-high 19 points, eight rebounds and six steals. "We wanted it more tonight," he said. "We had the right intensity throughout the game and we refused to lose when they made a comeback. Our team made plays tonight, that’s the bottom line."
Junior all-star forward Jeffrey Boone (August Martin/ Rosedale, NY) was spectacular throughout the championship with 12 points, eight rebounds and six steals, while forward Christopher Roberts (Springfield gardens / Jamaica, NY) had his best game of the series with eight points and seven rebounds.
The 2006 CUNYAC / Con Edison All-Tournament team included Sekani Francis (JFK / Bronx, NY) of Lehman, Hakeem Kased (FDR / Brooklyn, NY) of John Jay, Fadika and Karis from Baruch, and Boone from York.
CUNYAC contributed to this story.