The annual men's basketball alumni player game took place tonight.

Box Score

Mike Dietz calmly hit a free throw with 0.3 remaining to lift the Bearcats to a 79-78 home victory in an exciting battle of unbeaten CUNYAC teams on Friday night in the ARC Arena.

The Bearcats stay undefeated in the conference (7-0) and improve to 15-4 overall, while the Bridges of Brooklyn College drop to 7-1 and 14-4.

The conference showdown featured eight lead changes in the first half with Brooklyn building the early advantage and halftime lead (41-34) with All-American candidate Richard Jean-Baptiste scoring 13 points.

Baruch stayed close with George Kunkel at times single-handedly keeping the team in the game with 12 points and five rebounds.

During the start of the second half, Baruch went on a 14-5 run to take a 48-46 lead on a three-pointer by Tammer Farid at the 15:57 mark.

That advantage would be short-lived as Baruch and Brooklyn consistently exchanged leads and tied on six different occasions throughout middle portions of the second half.

The Bearcats, however, quickly overturned a 65-63 deficit with a pair of 3-pointers from Tammer Farid and one by Mike Dietz to take their biggest lead of the night (72-65) with 4:29 remaining.

Brooklyn charged back to take the lead (76-75) on a lay up by Jean-Baptiste with an even 2:00 minutes left.

Baruch would go to the free throw line twice to connect on 3-of-4 attempts, highlighted by two from Steven Bader to take a 78-76 lead.

Again, for the 16th time in the game, Brooklyn tied (78-78) with a pair of Jean-Baptiste free throws, and that set up Baruch with the exciting final possession in the tense gym with only 11 ticks left on the clock.

Following a time out, Mike Dietz was fouled attempting a jumper and the senior captain went to the free line for two shots with 0.3 remaining.

Dietz drilled the first free throw and purposely missed the second to run out the clock for the exciting 79-78 home victory in front of the largest doubleheader crowd of the season thus far in the ARC Arena. 

George Kunkel led the Bearcats with a double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds, while Steven Bader also had his own double-double with 10 points and rebounds each.

Tammer Farid scored 21 points, including 14 in the exciting second half. Mike Dietz contributed seven assists and three steals.

Lionel Hilaire was busy again at point guard with eight points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Baruch easily won the rebounding battle (42-27), but Brooklyn stayed in the game all evening by shooting 52 percent (28-54) from the field.

Richard Jean-Baptiste led the visitors with a game-high 33 points and six assists in playing all 40 minutes. John Amil and Thomas Guerin both finished with 10 points each.

The Baruch men’s basketball team will return to action on Wednesday, January 28, with a 7:00 pm conference road game at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.