UB Men Claim ECC Regular Season Crown And Top Seed In Conference Championship Tournament With 67-65 Win At C.W. Post In Nationally Televised Contest
Purple Knights Roll Into Conference Tournament On An Eight-Game Winning Streak
Brookville, N.Y.-Senior Msoo Ikyatoor (Nigeria, West Africa), who scored the final three points of the game for the University of Bridgeport men's basketball team, scored a lay-up with 1:09 to play to give the Purple Knights a 67-65 lead over the host C.W. Post Pioneers which proved to be the final score in a nationally televised East Coast Conference game on Saturday afternoon. The win gives UB the ECC regular season title and the top seed in next weekend's conference championship tournament that will be played in Bridgeport on Saturday and Sunday, March 5 and 6. Saturday's win extends Bridgeport's winning streak to eight games, and the Purple Knights close out the regular season with an 18-8 overall record and an 18-3 conference mark. C.W. Post is now 19-9 overall and 16-5 in the ECC.
UB played outstanding defense down the stretch holding C.W. Post scoreless for the final 3:31 of the game.
Bridgeport senior Tim Cokley (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) scored a team-high 19 points, as he hit 7-of-10 field goals including 3-of-4 three-point shots. Cokley was joined in double figure by Ikyatoor with 16 points, and graduate student Dave Boykin (White Plains, N.Y.), who netted 10 points. Ikyatoor led Bridgeport on the glass with eight rebounds.
Stefan Bonneau led three CW. Post players in double figures with a game-high 23 points.
The UB men will be back in action at home in Hubbell Gym next Saturday, March 5 at 5:00 p.m. in the East Coast Conference Semifinals against an the winner of Wednesday night's quarterfinal bewtween Molloy and NYIT.