Orangeburg, N.Y. (1/6/17) The Lady Chargers hosted the first place Cougars on Saturday after coming off of their win against Post a week ago. The Cougars entered the game with a record of 12-2 (5-0 CACC) and were looking to stay undefeated in the conference in their first meeting with Dominican this season. As for the Lady Chargers, they entered the game with a record of 4-8 (3-1 CACC) and have won 4 of their last 5 games. The last time these two teams met was the semi-finals of the conference tournament last season.

Dominican got off to a fast start in the first quarter using a seven-point run to jump in front of the Cougars before they cut the deficit back to two points. The second quarter began with the Lady Chargers leading by two points. Both teams were even for most of the quarter until the Cougars took the lead back towards the end of the half and went into halftime with a three-point lead and outscored Dominican in the second quarter 16-11. There were eight lead changes in the half and the Lady Chargers were staying with the Cougars and playing tough against them.

 Jasmine Gee (Englewood, NJ) led all scorers in the first half with 11 points and pulled down 4 rebounds for Dominican. The Lady Chargers, as a team, shot 40% from the field as the Cougars shot 32.1% from the field. In the half, the Lady Chargers went 0 for 5 from three-point range and Caldwell had made 3 of 11 from beyond the arc. The Cougars were perfect from the free throw line making all eight of their free throws in the half.

In the second half, the Cougars extended out to their largest lead at the time which was 7 points over Dominican. The Lady Chargers continued to play hard and keep up with the Cougars by not letting the game get too far out of reach. The third quarter ended with the Cougars out in front by six points over Dominican and they started the fourth and final quarter by extending to their largest lead of the game which was eight points. The Lady Chargers used an eight-point run to get back into the game late in the fourth quarter to regain the lead back for the first time since the first half.

The Lady Chargers extended out to a 70-63 lead with just over one minute to go in the game. The Cougars answered and cut the deficit to three points and forced a turnover late to get possession back with twelve seconds to go down by three. With the score 70-67, the Cougars tried one last time to tie the game but missed their opportunity and the Lady Chargers regained possession and control of the game. Dominican closed out their fifth win of the season. The Lady Chargers improved to 5-8 (4-1 CACC) and handed the Cougars their first conference loss who dropped to 12-3 (5-1 CACC).

Dominican outscored the Cougars 29-18 in the final quarter to secure the win. The Lady Chargers had five players in double figures with Gee leading the way with 22 points and 8 rebounds. Alpreshia Parker (Pocono Summit, PA), Rebecca Rabeiro (Midland Park, NJ), and Taylor Tomlinson (Middletown, NY) all finished with 12 points and Ciera Rivera (Pomona, NY) finished the game with 11 points. For the Cougars, Kristin Drogsler led the way with 20 points and Sharrell Sanders scored 14 points. Sanders also added 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Both teams shot well from the free throw line. The Cougars shot 85% while Dominican shot 82.4% from the stripe.

The Lady Chargers will be back in action on Wednesday January 10^th when they host Holy Family University at 5:30 PM.