RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Junior guard,
Clarence White (Bronx, N.Y.) drove the Bears' attack with career-highs in points (27) and rebounds (13) as Bloomfield defeated the Golden Falcons of Felician College on the road, 78-71 Wednesday night in Rutherford. The victory marked the Bears' second-straight win over a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) opponent and improved their overall record to 5-7, with a 4-2 conference mark. With the setback, Felician fell to 1-12 on the season with a 1-6 record in CACC play.
In a career night for the junior floor general, White went a perfect 13-13 from the charity strip and shot 50.0% from the field (6-12) including 2-for-4 from beyond the arc. Twelve of White's thirteen rebounds came off the defensive glass and he chipped in a game-high five assists to accompany two steals for the Bears. Senior guard,
Marvin Williams (Jersey City, N.J.) got in on the action netting 16 points on 5-for-12 shooting from the field. Junior,
Claude Blue (Brooklyn, N.Y.) came in off the bench to add 10 points in twenty-four minutes of playing time.
The Golden Falcons were led by sophomore Tim Massado (Wilmington, Del.) who also came off the bench to record a season-high 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting for the night. Guard, A.J. Kemp (Jersey City, N.J.) also entered the game as a reserve and netted 6-of-7 buckets for 13 points while dishing out 4 assists for Felician in the loss.
In the opening half both teams flip-flopped leads with Bloomfield drawing out first on a White three-pointer for an early 8-4 advantage. Felician answered later in the stanza with a Massado three-pointer to take their own four-point lead (20-16) as 7:44 showed on the clock. White nailed a jumper in the paint that knotted the score at 23 with just over three minutes remaining until the intermission break. The home crowd smelled a small opportunity for their team to pick up its second victory of the season but that scent quickly dissipated as the Bears ran off twelve straight points and took a 35-23 lead into the locker room for halftime.
Despite being out-rebounded 27-17 in the first half, Bloomfield secured 8 steals and forced 18 Golden Falcon turnovers to help bolster their lead. White finished the half with 10 points and 3 rebounds but was determined to make his presence felt more in the second half. Williams had 8 points at the break and along with
Ignacio Diez (Madrid, Spain) who chipped in 7 points helped to fuel the Bears offense in the half.
Bloomfield knocked in the first two buckets of the second stanza that opened up their largest lead of the contest at 39-23. Later in the period, White found Williams in the paint with a lovely dish for a lay up and Bloomfield enjoyed a fourteen-point advantage (43-29) with 15:26 to go. Felician served notice with a 7-0 spurt that the game was not over as White sunk two free throws to end the Bears drought at 45-36. The Golden Falcons responded by forcing three turnovers in less than a minute span and cut their deficit to just one (45-44) capped by a jumper in the paint by Kemp that sent the Felician faithful into a frenzy. White calmly scored three-pointers on the Bears next two possessions, the first being a conventional one and the second coming off a feed from Williams to beyond the arc putting the visitors back in control 51-44. Felician could only get to within five points the rest of the way as White's perfect shooting from the line kept the home team and their crowd at bay and Bloomfield went on to pull out the conference victory.
White's first career double-double led all scorers and rebounders for the night. Bloomfield finished the game out-rebounding the Golden Falcons 48-40 but gave up a 42-19 edge in bench points due mostly to the starters having such success on the road.
The Bears return to action on Saturday, January 10th when they host the Warriors of Nyack College. Tip off for the game is scheduled for 3:00 pm. We would like to encourage everyone to mark your calendars for January 24 when the Bears 'Play for A' during the Coaches vs Cancer week. Bloomfield will host the Rams of Philly U at 3:00 pm with all of the proceeds of that day going towards Leukemia research in honor of the late Avery Thompson, a member of the Bloomfield College Athletics family. More details and information on that event will follow.
