Bloomfield, N.J. (12/2/17) The Lady Chargers opened their conference portion of the 2017-2018 schedule on Saturday when they visited the Bloomfield Bears still in search of their first win of the season. Dominican is coming off a tough loss to Queens College on Wednesday, a game in which they were never able to take control of and had to play from behind most of the game. The Lady Charger's key to earning a victory over the Bears was to get off to a strong start and stay consistent in the whole game. The Bears entered the game winless as well as the Lady Chargers and with two winless teams something had to give.

The Bears were the team to get off to a fast start in this game on their home floor outscoring the Lady Chargers 19-9 in the first quarter. The Bears largest lead in the quarter rose to twelve on the back of a 13-4 run the end the quarter and Bloomfield had all of the momentum early. The Bears extended their lead to thirteen in the second quarter and continued to control the momentum. Dominican was able to cut the deficit back to single digits with time running out in the first half. Bloomfield ended the first half with a layup by Bobbi Floyd with time running out and both teams entered the break with the Bears holding a 32-23 lead. Ciera Rivera (Pomona, NY) kept the Lady Chargers in the game leading all scorers in the first half with 15 points. Rivera went 8 for 10 from the field in the half adding 2 three-pointers in the second quarter.

Coming out of the break, the Lady Chargers were down but a strong start to the third is what they needed. Dominican did not come out strong and Bloomfield took full control of the game extending their lead out to 21 points being their largest of the game by outscoring the Lady Chargers 17-5 in the third quarter. The Bears controlled the fourth quarter as well extending to what was their largest lead of the whole game at 24 points and rolled to the 63-43 win over Dominican for their first win of the season improving to 1-6 (1-0 CACC). The Lady Chargers dropped to 0-7 (0-1 CACC) and are still searching for their first win. With conference play now open, Dominican will have their chance to bounce back from the tough start to the season.

Rivera led Dominican with 20 points and added four rebounds and four steals in the loss. Samantha McClutchy (Washington Township, NJ) led the team in rebounds with eight off the bench and added five points off the bench. The Lady Chargers will be back in action on Tuesday December 5^th when they visit Concordia College for their second conference game of the season. The search for their first win of the season continues for Dominican.