WILMINGTON, D.E. - The Bloomfield College men's basketball team battled the Lightning of Goldey-Beacom down to the wire Tuesday night at the Joseph West Jones College Center and pulled out a 70-68 stunner on an offensive foul at the buzzer. The victory snapped a two-game slide for the Bears in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) play and improved their league record to 5-4 and 5-10 overall. The home setback dropped the Lightning to 5-4 in conference action and down to 7-11 overall.

Senior Claude Blue (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored his 1,000^th career point as a Bear during the contest and poured in a game-high 23 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the floor. Nick Davidson (Lumberton, N.J.) feasted at the line with 10 of his 17 points coming of free throws. Juan Brown (Annapolis, M.D.) chipped in a solid 11 points (4-7 FG, 3-4 3FG) to go along with 3 assists, 2 boards and a steal.

Elijah Tilman recorded 15 points and 9 rebounds to lead five Lightning players who finished with double digits in the scoring column.

After connecting on just 8 shots in the first half and trailing 24-33 at the break Bloomfield began the second period with the first eight points to climb within one of Goldey-Beacom. Brown netted five of his points during the stretch and the second half turned into a battle with six ties and 11 lead changes.

The home team swung the momentum in their favor later in the half, using an 8-2 outburst to command a 46-41 lead with 12:33 on the clock. The Lightning enjoyed a 62-58 cushion with 5:37 remainingbut the Bears used back-to-back buckets in the paint and five straight points to grab a 63-62 advantage, which included Blue's 1,000 career point and was capped off by a layup from sophomore transfer, Rakwan Kelly (Newark, N.J.).

Blue made another layup for the Bears to pull them within one-point (68-67) after the Lightning had moved in front again. The home team missed a 3-pointer on their next possession to give Bloomfield some life and after a Bears timeout Kelly snagged an offensive rebound before being fouled. The Bloomfield newcomer calmly sank two from the line and put his team up 69-68 with twenty-two seconds remaining.

On the ensuing play, Blue intercepted a pass and was fouled with 5.6 seconds to go on the clock. Bloomfield, in the double bonus, watched the senior sink one out of the two free throws as Blue finished the game with 1,003 career points and set up the dramatic finish to the game.

The Lightning were out of timeouts to draw up a play and got the ball up the court and into the basket for a layup as time expired and the crowd went crazy. But before the buzzer sounded and the fans erupted Davidson had slid in front of Goldey-Beacom's player and was rewarded for setting his feet when the officials whistled for an offensive foul that negated the goal.

Bloomfield outshot the Lightning 50.0 percent (21-42) to 47.3 (26-55) and made a decent living at the line making more free throws (24) than Goldey-Beacom attempted (11). The visitors held a slight edge in points in the paint (28-24) and on the glass (27-24) but the home team dominated in bench scoring 21-4.

Next up for the Bears, they host a regional foe in the Penmen of Southern New Hampshire University. The Northeast 10 opponent enters the Bloomfield Gym on Thursday, Jan 14 for a 7:00 pm tip off.

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