BLOOMFIELD, N.J. – Senior Claude Blue (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and sophomores Juan Brown (Annapolis, M.D.) and Nick Davidson (Lumberton, N.J.) each had twenty or more points Thursday night as the Bears completed their second consecutive come-from-behind thrilling victory with a 95-89 overtime decision against the Penmen of Southern New Hampshire University.
 
The non-conference win marked Bloomfield's first over a Northeast 10 opponent in three seasons and improved their overall record to 6-10. The setback dropped the Penmen to 10-6 on the season.
 
Blue, who scored 22 total points with 16 of them in the second half and overtime combined, went 7-for-8 from the floor, 1-for-1 from beyond the arc and 7-for-11 from the line, while pulling down eight rebounds, swatting two shots, snagged a steal and handed out an assist. Brown registered a new career-high, 21 points (5-10 FG, 1-3 3-FG, 10-11 FT), grabbed three boards to go along with a pair of assists and steals, while Davidson netted 20 points (6-14 FG, 2-4 3-FG, 6-6 FT) and two helpers.
 
The Bears had only four points from their bench as the starting five got it done for the night with sophomore Ignacio Diez (Madrid, Spain) pouring in 16 points (5-12 FG, 2-3 3FG, 4-6 FT) and 8 rebounds while classmate Rakwan Kelly (Newark, N.J.) added 12 points on 5-for-11 shooting from the floor.
 
Rodney Sanders tallied a game-high 25 points, six rebounds, five helpers, a steal and a block to lead SNHU, while Chris Walters posted 22 points, ten boards and an assist.
 
The Bears were staring at an 80-74 deficit with 3:02 left when Kelly sank a bucket in the paint to touch off a 6-0 run that tied the game. Diez had a chance to put the home team up at the line with 51.0 seconds left but missed and it was the Penmen who sank two free throws with 34 ticks remaining in regulation. Brown drew a foul and the guard calmly went to the line and sank a pair to pull his team even with twenty-three seconds to go. Sanders had a look to pull out the road victory for SNHU but Safee Abdus-Sabur (Newark, N.J) gathered the rebound off the missed shot to send the game to overtime.
 
In the extra session, SNHU struck first, but the teams swapped scores four times to leave the game tied at 87 with 2:41 left. The young Bloomfield squad held the upper hand in experience though as they came out on top in a overtime win less than two weeks earlier and the Penmen were writing their first extra session story of the season.  A pair of Blue free throws and four from Brown cracked open a 93-87 advantage for Bloomfield with 16.2 seconds on the clock. Walters netted a layup to close out the SNHU scoring for the night but Davidson drained two from the line to preserve the 6-point margin of victory.
 
Bloomfield's four bench points came from Abdus-Sabur as the freshman's main contribution on the evening was his team-high nine rebounds.
 
SNHU outshot the Bears, 50.5 percent (31-62) to 46.9 percent (30-64), including knocking down more from beyond the arc (14) than Bloomfield attempted (13). The Bears dominated on the glass, 46-26, including 17-5 on the offensive end for a 17-8 gap in second chance points, owned the paint, 34-24, and although each team turned it over 13 times, Bloomfield had a slight 22-20 discrepancy in points off mistakes.
 
The Bears trailed, 9-4, less than three minutes in as SNHU tickled the net with three consecutive from beyond the arc that included two from Sanders. The spread grew to plus twelve as Sanders went on a monster tear - highlighted by a dunk and back-to-back triples from the Penmen shooter – that opened an 26-14 advantage with 10:57 remaining in the first half.
 
The lead expanded to as much as nineteen (36-17) with SNHU shooters firing from all angles at a 58.6 percent (17-29) clip which included 56.3 percent (9-16) from downtown during the opening half of play. Bloomfield went into the locker room with a 46-33 deficit and searched for an answer to quell the Penmen's barrage to start the match.
 
SNHU showed no signs of slowing down at the start of the second frame as they grew the advantage as high as 18 (60-42) nearly three and a half minutes into the second half, but 3-pointers from Blue and Diez bookended a Brown jumper that ignited a momentous 23-4 run to write the Bears first lead of the game at 65-64 with 9:03 remaining. A three-pointer on the next possession quickly gave the Penmen their lead back but the visitors were clearly shaken.
 
The margin bounced between two and seven over the next six minutes before a Sanders jumper nudged the SNHU lead to six at 80-74 with 3:02 left to set up the Bears dramatic storybook ending.  
 
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