BLOOMFIELD, N.J. - Senior Matt Hall (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored a season-high twenty-six points to lead 6 Bears in double-digit scoring as Bloomfield College men's basketball defeated the Golden Lions of Dowling College, 109-104 in their home opener Tuesday evening in Bloomfield. Bloomfield (1-3) halts a three game losing streak to pick up their first win of the 2014-2015 campaign while sending Dowling (0-3) home winless so far with a third consecutive loss on the year.
 
Hall shot 10-of-12 from the field and made five of his seven free throws, while tallying ten and four assists. Fellow senior Marvin Williams (Jersey City, N.J.) was close behind with 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting on the evening while junior Clarence White (Bronx, N.Y.) chipped in 16 points and 6 rebounds. Nick Davidson (Lumberton, N.J.), Claude Blue (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Ignacio Diez (Madrid, Spain) all had fourteen points each and snagged eight, six and two rebounds respectively.

Darien Davis (Middle Island, N.Y.) netted twenty-five points for the Golden Lions on 10-for-18 shooting from the field as Dowling put up 82 attempts for the evening, connecting on 52.4%(43) of them.

Bloomfield opened up slow, watching the Golden Lions go up 7-2 before asserting themselves with a 12-0 run to answer capped by back-to-back 3-poiters by Hall and Williams. Dowling retook the lead, 23-22 on a Davis lay up in the paint with 11:31 on the clock but it proved to be the last time Bloomfield would trail in the contest. Over the next four minutes, the Bears carved out a 14-4 advantage to lead by nine (36-27) after two made free throws by Williams. When the buzzer sounded and the dust settled Bloomfield was on top 54-46 at the break with both teams seemingly poised to break the century mark in the second period. 

Bloomfield turned the ball over thirteen times in the first half but out-rebounded Dowling 26-9. Both teams hoisted ten attempts from beyond the arc in the opening period with the Bears connected on two and the Golden Lions only tickling the twine with one. The Bloomfield home crowd strapped in for the 2nd half after witnessing both teams convert over 50.0% of their field goals in the 1st. 

The Bears did not disappoint, sparking an 8-2 run out of the locker room that stretched their lead to 62-48 just 2:21 into the second half. With the lead at 17 under 4 minutes later, Dowling used a blistering 21-6 stretch to trim its deficit to 2 at 77-75 with 9:38 on the clock.

A Hall jumper halted the run and Bloomfield re-established a seven point advantage after a 3-pointer by White with 2:54 remaining in the game. The head coaches had snickered before the game, whomever scored 100 points first would win the contest and that held true with the Bears crossing the century threshold on a lay up by Diez, eventually taking the game just over a minute later. 

Bloomfield outshot Dowling, 56.0 percent (42-75) to 52.4 percent (43-82), including 82.6 percent (19-23) to 81.3 percent (13-16) from the charity stripe. The Bears also held advantages on the glass (49-27), bench contribution (14-13) and second chance points (16-9) but had room for improvement on turnovers (24-16) which led to a 23-14 points off turnovers advantage for the Golden Lions.

The Bears return to action Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 8:00 p.m. when they host cross-town rival Caldwell University in the Bloomfield Gymnasium. Stay up-to-date with the latest news, including game recaps and live broadcasts, directly from the Bloomfield College athletic department by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter @Go_BCBears.