Orangeburg, N.Y. (11/18/17) The Dominican College Lady Chargers basketball team hosted University of Bridgeport on Saturday for their home opener of the 2017-2018 season. The game kicked off the 5^th annual Regina Rivera Memorial Tournament with Dominican seeking their first win of the season. The Lady Chargers going into the game were 0-2 (0-0 CACC) with their first two games coming at the ECC/CACC Challenge last weekend. The University of Bridgeport Purple Knights were seeking their second win of the young season.

The first quarter was a back and forth quarter until the end where the Purple Knights finished on a 9-0 run to give themselves a 19-13 lead going into the second quarter. The second quarter was just as even as the first with the Lady Chargers regaining the lead and took a 32-29 lead into the break. Samantha McClutchy (Washington Township, N.J.) led all scorers at halftime with 10 points off the bench for the Lady Chargers with six of her ten points coming from the free throw line, going 6 for 6 from the stripe. The Purple Knights' Samnell Vonleh recorded eight points as well as pulling down a team leading six rebounds. The Lady Chargers outscored the Purple Knights 19-10 in the second quarter and were playing with confidence.

The Purple Knights got off to a quick start in the third quarter by scoring 11 of the quarter's first 13 points and jumped out to a quick 41-34 lead over the Lady Chargers. The Purple Knights continued their hot start out of the break by extending their lead to twelve over Dominican. The Lady Chargers cut the deficit to five points before the end of the third quarter making the score 50-45 entering the final quarter.

University of Bridgeport answered Dominican again by starting the fourth quarter out strong and extending their lead back up to a twelve-point lead. The Lady Chargers called time-out with 6:31 left in the game and it looked like the Purple Knights were in full control. Out of the time-out the Lady Chargers went on an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to one point when Ciera Rivera (Pomona, N.Y.) scored with three minutes to go. The Lady Chargers extended their run to 13-0 when McClutchy stole the ball away and the Lady Chargers took the lead back when Khay'la Latimer (Teaneck, N.J.) grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a put back to give the Lady Chargers a 58-57 lead.

With less than a minute to go Samnell Vonleh scored to give her team the lead back. Vonleh nailed a jumper on the next possession to add to an 18-point effort for the Purple Knights. The Purple Knights had a 61-58 lead with 28 seconds left and they would finish on top by a score of 63-60. Dominican dropped to 0-3 (0-0 CACC) still in search of their first win. Vonleh led all scorers for the game with 18 points and nine rebounds for the Purple Knights. Kadijah Dickson and Morgen Caution both recorded a double-double in the win with Dickson scoring 15 points and recorded 10 rebounds. Caution scored 10 points and added 10 rebounds. The Purple Knights improved to 2-2 overall with the win.

As for Dominican, McClutchy had a 14-point effort off the bench to go along with her six rebounds and three steals in 21 minutes played.  Latimer scored 12 points in the loss.

The Lady Chargers will play host to New York Institute of Technology at 1:00 PM on Sunday when the Regina Rivera Memorial Tournament continues. NYIT lost game two of the tournament on Saturday to Felician University by a score of 63-52. Felician University will match up against University of Bridgeport in game two on Sunday at 3:00 PM.