Box Score

NYU saw its aspirations of capturing the 2010 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Metropolitan Tournament title thwarted with a 68-61 loss to York College on Saturday afternoon at SUNY Old Westbury's Clark Athletic Center in Old Westbury, NY.

Despite an 8-0 second-half surge during which the second-seeded Violets (17-10) held the third-seeded Cardinals (23-7) scoreless for 5:55, NYU only held a tenuous 57-53 advantage with 5:04 remaining after a Derek Becker free throw.

After York scored on consecutive possessions to forge a 57-57 deadlock, Carl Yaffe converted a backdoor cut into a lay-up to give the Violets their sixth and final advantage, 59-57, with 3:43 remaining.

From there, NYU got outscored 11-2 down the stretch, getting its only points on a lay-up from Omar Meziab with 13.2 seconds, which ended up an 8-0 Cardinal burst but only cut the Violets' deficit to 65-61.

Yaffe scored a team-best 17 points for NYU, which was making its fourth consecutive ECAC Metro appearance and was hoping to earn its third championship-game berth in four seasons. Twenty-second-year head coach Joe Nesci's squad won the 2007 Metro title and advanced to the 2009 title contest.

NYU's senior class of Meziab, Chip Borsi and Keith Jensen appeared in the postseason in each of their four seasons. Meziab netted 10 tallies in his final collegiate game, while Jensen produced nine points to finish 24th all-time with 1,024 points. Borsi hit a three-pointer and doled out two assists off the bench.

Also for the Violets, who will return three starters and much of their current roster next season, Richie Polan finished with nine points, 12 rebounds and five assists in 28 minutes off the bench.

Elijah Evelyn led York with 19 points, including 13 in the first half as the Cardinals claimed a 34-29 lead through 20 minutes. Nick Hamilton-Lopez added 16 tallies, while Marcel Esonwune contributed 13 points, 13 boards and five blocked shots.