NEWARK, Del. – Senior Claude Blue (Brooklyn, N.Y.) notched his second double-double of the season with a team-high 23 points and 12 rebounds but the Bloomfield College men's basketball team missed the opportunity for a win as Wilmington University pulled out a 79-73 victory Wendnesday night at the WU Athletics Complex.
 
The road loss dropped the Bears to 4-9 overall and 4-3 in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) action while the Wildcats win for the first time since Nov. 24th, snapping an 8-game losing streak and improved to 5-9 overall including their first victory in league play (1-5).
 
Blue shot 10-for-18 in the game, including 5-for-8 in the first half, and was -for-6 at the line, while tallying twelve rebounds, two steals, an assists and a block. Sophomore Juan Brown (Annapolis, M.D.) netted 14 points (5-13 FG, 4-8 3-FG) to go along with four rebounds and one helper, while classmate Nick Davidson (Lumberton, N.J.) recorded his first double-double of the year with 11 points and 12 boards. Fellow sophomore Rakwan Kelly (Newark, N.J.) was also in double figures with 10 points (4-9 FG, 2-5 FT) an assist and a steal. Freshman Safee Abdus-Sabur (Newark, N.J.) came of the bench to record 10 points as well (4-10 FG, 2-2 FT) in twenty-eight minutes of work.
 
Bloomfield had no answer for the Wildcats' guard Tyaire Ponzo-Meek who dropped a game-high 34 points on 11-for-18 shooting from the floor and 4-for-9 from deep. Ponzo-Meek also recorded 5 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block on the night to fill out the stat sheet.
 
The Bears controlled the game early, taking a 15-6 lead on an Abdus-Sabur bucket in the paint at the 12:21 minute mark. The Wildcats clawed out a 16-4 run of their own across the next five minutes to take a 22-19 lead 6:56 remaining in the opening half.
 
A layup by Blue gave Bloomfield a two-point advantage (33-31) as 1:58 showed on the clock but Wilmington rattled off a 7-0 spurt to close out the first half, including five points from Ponzo-Meek.
 
Four straight points from Davidson to start the 2^nd half pulled the Bears to within 37-38 just over two minutes into the period but the Wildcats kept Bloomfield at bay as Ponzo-Meek racked up 25 second half points. The visitors tied the game up four times in the period with the last one (65-65) coming with 5:22 to go in the game.
 
The gap had Wilmington up two at 71-69 with a minute and seven seconds to play and the home team snapped their eight-game losing streak by converting eight straight from the line to end the Bears night.
 
The Wildcats outshot Bloomfield, 43.3 percent (29-67) to 39.4 percent (28-71), including 32.1 percent (9-28) to 28.6 percent (6-21) from long distance. Wilmington also exceled at the line, as well, going 12-for-13 (92.3%), while the Bears were 11-for-17 (64.7%). Bloomfield won the glass (45-41) and held a slight edge in the paint (34-32) and turning it over fewer times (9) than the Wildcats (11).
 
The Bears will return to CACC action Saturday, Jan. 8 at 3:00 p.m. when they play host to USciences at the Bloomfield Gym. 

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