The Brooklyn College men’s basketball team defeated Baruch College 62-55 to win the 2020 CUNYAC Championship. After an up-and-down regular season in which they went 10-15 and 7-7 in-conference, the Bulldogs swept their CUNYAC opponents in the playoffs to win their first conference title since 2016.
The Bulldogs started off the season losing seven out of their first eight games. After then winning eight of their next ten, the Bulldogs lost six in a row before defeating Medgar Evers College to finish the season. Basketball is a game of runs, but the streaks, both losing and winning, that the Bulldogs went on were almost unprecedented.
The Bulldogs started off the CUNYAC tournament against Hunter College, and defeated the favored Hawks 67-58. The Bulldogs then won a scrappy match against top-seeded John Jay College 57-55, sending them through to the final. In the climax of the Cinderella story, the Bulldogs defeated Baruch 62-55, with senior guard Anthony McClean claiming the game’s MVP trophy after leading the way with 16 points.
“Seeing how we handled the adversity leading up to tonight, I knew we had a great chance to win,” McClean told the athletic department following the game. “It was another team win and I couldn’t be prouder.”
In the final, senior guard Jordan Wright chipped in 9 points, as did junior guard Noah Shy, and senior guard Michael Tesoriero added 8 points. The Bulldogs were led by their guards all season, and the CUNYAC tournament was no different.
The men’s and women’s teams both won the CUNYAC Championship this year, and both teams were extremely supportive of each other. That support and the confidence taken from these past games will act as stepping stones for the Bulldogs to continue winning in the NCAA tournament. They face off against Swarthmore College on Friday, March 6.