The six-peat was not to be. Although Brooklyn College dominated CUNY AC play all season, in the championship game, the Bulldogs met their match with the Hunter College Hawks. It was an intense and physical game with Hunter getting the 77–69 win, securing their first CUNY AC title since 2019 and advancing to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The loss ended Brooklyn’s streak of five straight titles as a bonafide dynasty.
“We had a big loss last season, so this meant everything to us,” said Hunter senior guard Makkedah Murray, who had 12 points in the championship game.
Senior forward Gianna Henriques said there were hard conversations following a loss to Brooklyn in the final regular season game on Feb. 17. “We had to make sure we talked on the court a lot,” said Henriques, who also netted 12. “We played off each other well.”
Hawks star Alexa Charles, the leading scorer in women’s college basketball, was tournament MVP, but credit must also be given to her teammates, who stepped up in every way when she struggled to score in the first half. “My teammates really came through for me; I was in my head the first half,” said Charles. “They pulled me together, told me to calm down … and I came back the second half a different player. The rest is history.
“It means the world to me that my teammates have my back,” she continued. “I trusted them and they delivered for me. I hope we continue winning.”
Charles, who graduates this spring and begins her career as an accountant, is clearly a generational talent, but they won as a team. “For them to put it together and win is testament to them, their hard work, how driven they are,” said head coach John Garrett. “Alexa is an unbelievable human being. Her instincts are unteachable. She sees the game faster than everybody else and she’s worked so hard to improve her outside shooting. She came in as an elite athlete, she’s maintained her elite athleticism and she worked so hard to become a three-level scorer. She’s such a good teammate — she looks to pass, she rebounds, she defends, she loves being part of a winning culture.”
Hunter takes on Johns Hopkins University in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Friday.
The post The streak is broken: Hunter upsets Brooklyn for the CUNY AC title appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.
