The New York University men's basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak with an 89-76 victory over Hunter College on Tuesday, December 11, at the Sportsplex in Manhattan.

Dom Cristiano led four Violets in double figures with 18 points.

Each team posted early runs, with the host Violets (4-5) scoring the first six points of the game followed by the Hawks (3-6) tallying the next 11.

Hunter increased its lead to as many as nine points, 41-32, with 3:25 left in the first half. But, a 9-0 NYU streak tied the game and the teams went off at halftime in a 41-41 stalemate.

Cade Hoppe, who finished with 16 points, connected on all four of his field goal attempts and finished with 10 points in his seven first-half minutes. Overall, the Violets shot 57.1% (16-of-28) from the field over the game's first 20 minutes.

NYU scored the first five points of the second half and went on to take its first double-digit lead, 59-49, on Riley Demps' layup with 13:58 left in the game. 

However, Hunter rallied with an 8-0 run to pull within two before but NYU countered with a 10-2 streak to re-capture another 10-point lead, 69-59. 

The Hawks immediately pulled within six, but consecutive buckets by Jule Brown and Hoppe ignited an 18-8 streak as the Violets opened up a game-high 16-point lead, 87-71, with just under a minute remaining. 

"The thing that I'm most proud of tonight is we had 22 assists and only 11 turnovers," said Head Coach Dagan Nelson. "I had told the guys that the next time I look at a stat sheet and our assists to turnovers are positive, it will be a big difference. And, tonight it obviously was." 

Cameron Moore totaled a team-high seven assists as six Violets contributed at least two.  

Brown finished with 15 points, as did Bobby Hawkinson, who also contributed a season-high 11 rebounds.

"Great balanced scoring," Nelson added. "For us, the whole thing is sharing the basketball, and tonight we did that." 

George Keener of Hunter led all scorers with 21 points. 
 
The Violets now take a long break before returning to the court on Sunday, December 30, to face Western Connecticut State University. Tip-off in Danbury, CT, is set for 7:30pm.