SYRACUSE, N.Y. – For the first time since 2014 the Bears men's basketball team returned to the NCAA Division II championship but suffered a, 94-58 loss to the College of Saint Rose (St. Rose).
 
St. Rose now moves on in the single-elimination tournament to the semifinals tomorrow for a 5:00 pm match up. The Bears season comes to a conclusion with a record of 22-10. Bloomfield reached the East Regional after securing the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship a week ago.
 
The Bear Necessities
Score: #6 Bloomfield 58, #3 St. Rose 94 
Records: #6 Bloomfield (22-10) | #3 St. Rose (25-7)
Location: Ted Grant Court - LeMoyne College / Syracuse, N.Y.
 
How It Happened

• The Golden Knights opened up the scoring and the Bears quickly responded with a Marcus Fleming (Linden, N.J.) bucket. St. Rose reeled off the next five points and eventually secured a, 22-7 lead after a thirteen-point spurt forced a Bloomfield timeout. The East Region's 6^th seed seemed sluggish out of the gate and head coach Gerald Holmes hoped to shake off the cobwebs with a talk
• St. Rose went back to business as usual and flexed to a, 37-17 advantage with under eight minutes to play in the 1^st half. The Bears clawed out a, 9-2 run and pulled within thirteen (39-26) but the #3 seed in the East Region answered with five-straight to pad their lead. The teams went into the locker rooms with Bloomfield trailing the Golden Knights 43-27.
• Freshman forward Chiedozie Akawauku (Newark, N.J.) had a solid first half with 9 points for Bloomfield on 2-of-3 shooting from the floor but doing most of his damage working down low and getting to the line where he was 5-of-7 at the charity stripe. St Rose shot at a blistering 51.4 percent (18-for-35) clip in the opening frame that included five three-pointers while the Bears offense struggled at 28.1 percent (9-for-32) and failed to connect from beyond the arc in the period.
• Bloomfield would need to turn things around offensively to compete in the second half
•  Ahmid Williams (Linden, N.J.) started the 2^nd half scoring with the Bears' first three-pointer of the day and ignited a quick, 7-2 run and pulled within, 45-34. A foul on a three-point shot led to three Golden Knights free throws that cooled off the Bloomfield fire as St. Rose extended back to a 16-point lead (52-36).
• The Golden Knights continued their sharp-shooting as three lead to that point at, 72-47. The Bears never recovered and later succumbed to the, 94-58 final score

Williams, a senior, finished with 6 points on two three pointers in the second half. Nick Davidson (Lumberton, N.J.), the Bears leading scoring for the season, finished the day with 11 points to go along with 6 boards and Akawuaku also finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds. CACC Tournament MVP, Fleming netted 10 points on a poor shooting afternoon for Bloomfield. The Bears were held to their lowest scoring output of the season (58) and fewest field goals made (20) on the year.
 
"I failed to get them ready," head coach Gerald Holmes said in a post-game interview. "This was their first time here as a group and I needed to do more to prepare them for what they would face." Bloomfield will return 4 of their 5 starters next season and under Coach Holmes, who has guided the Bears to seven NCAA Regional Tournaments, the CACC Champions vow to be back to the big dance next after growing from this experience.
 
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