Box Score

Kiara Johnson scored a career-high 17 points (5-7 fg) to lead the Baruch College Bearcats to a 62-50 non-conference victory over the Violets of New York University on Saturday afternoon in the ARC Arena.

The Bearcats improve to 5-2 with the victory, while the Violets drop to 4-2.

The game was a tale of two different halves for the Bearcats. They struggled in the opening 20 minutes after connecting on only seven of their first 28 shot attempts to help enable NYU to build a 25-21 halftime advantage.  

In the second half, the Bearcats shot much better at 53.3 percent (16-30), while forcing NYU into committing 13 turnovers to rally back to pull out the victory.

The game began to change midway through the second half. Sheridan Taylor gave the Bearcats their first lead of the half with a layup for a 32-30 advantage, but NYU quickly tied it on their next possession with a jumper by Shelby Coon with 11:41 remaining.

From that point, the Bearcats would score 18 of the next 24 points to take a 50-38 lead with 7:22 left. Johnson came up big in that game-busting run by scoring seven consecutive points.

The lead would later grow to 14 points (56-42) on a 3-pointer by Francess Henry with 4:03 left and that was enough to hold on to the victory against an opponent from the University Athletic Association.

Overall, the Bearcats finished shooting 39.7 percent (23-58), while the Violets shot 31.7 percent (19-60), including 2-of-13 from 3-point range.

Johnson led all scorers this afternoon with 17 points, while Jessica Duleba scored 14 points and Iyana Abrams had 10 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Cara Bonito led NYU with 12 points, while Makenzie Hirz and Coon totaled 13 rebounds each.

The Bearcats will return to action on Saturday, December 10, with a non-conference road contest at Ithaca College of the Empire Eight Conference.

Tip off in upstate New York is scheduled for 1:00 pm and is available to follow online via the live stats information page.