Orangeburg, N.Y. (1/24/18) The Dominican College men's basketball team handed the visiting Bears of Bloomfield College their first Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) loss of the season this evening after defeating the team, 83-73, in a game played on Coach Baxter Court in the Hennessy Center.

With the win Dominican improves to 14-5 overall and 8-2 in conference play, while the Bears now stand at 15-4 overall and 10-1 in the CACC.  DC also evens up the season series with the Bears and held them to a season low 73 points.

The first half saw the teams battle back and forth through the first 15 minutes of action and with the Chargers ahead, 33-31 with under five to go, the team used eight unanswered points, scored on back-to-back treys from Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Rookie of the Week, TyJon Gilmore (Watervliet, N.Y.) and a dunk from rookie Donnell Hill (Staten Island, N.Y.), to take a double-digit lead (41-31).  The Bears closed out the half on a 10-6 run to cut the deficit to 48-42 at the intermission.

Junior Ian Gardener (Norwalk, Conn.) posted a first half best 17 points, while Gilmore had nine points (3-4 from the three-point arc).  As a team the Chargers shot 43.9% (18-41) from the floor, 8-19 (42.1%) from the three-point arc and went 4-9 (44.4%) from the charity stripe in the half.

Bloomfield cut the lead to a single possession a few times in the second half, including a dunk from Nick Davidson to make the score 55-53 with just over 13 minutes left in a regulation.  A three-point Daniel Grant (Middletown, N.Y.) bucket was highlighted with an and-one opportunity and Daraja Rodwell (Baldwin, N.Y.) and Sayon Charles (Staten Island, N.Y.) followed with consecutive layups to rebuild a 10-point (63-53) lead with 10:53 on the clock.

Dominican would lead by as many as 15 points twice in the second half as they went on to hand the Bears their first conference loss in almost 12 months.

Grant led three Chargers in double figures with 19 points.  Gardener finished with 17 points, while Gilmore netted 14 points (4-6 from the three-point arc).

Jonathan Garcia (Springfield, Mass.) and Charles each grabbed a team best seven rebounds, while Garcia added game highs of six assists and five steals.

The Chargers will host Jefferson this coming Saturday afternoon for the 30th Annual Bobby Mulligan Memorial Game, which is slated for a 4pm start.