BLOOMFIELD, NJ – The Bears men's basketball team played their final regular season game in The Den Wednesday evening and suffered a heart-breaking, 72-70 loss to Nyack College. The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) divisional setback came after two late-second Warriors free throws that dropped Bloomfield to 14-13 overall and 10-8 in league play. The victory kept Nyack's playoff hopes alive as they improved to 14-12 overall and more importantly 9-9 in conference games with just one match left to decide postseason seedings.
The home team saw four players finish the night in double-digit scoring led by senior, Safee Abdus-Sabur (Newark, NJ) who netted 18 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. The Bears were stunned in the opening half as the visitors enjoyed a 46-33 advantage at the intermission break. Bloomfield shot a mere 36.1 percent (13-of-36) from the field in the 1st half while Nyack knocked in 53.1 percent (17-of-32) of their shots including 6-of-12 from long range.
The Warriors offense went cold in the 2nd half as the team made just 8-of-27 shots (29.6 percent) and Bloomfield capitalized to claw back into the game and tie the score at 70-70 with only 33 seconds to play. A Bears' foul with less than two seconds remaining sent Nyack to the line for the game-winning free throws.
Starters, Daren Bellinger (Stroudsburg, PA) and Isaiah Sparks netted 16 and 14 points respectively. BellInger went 4-of-6 from the field, all from long range and added in three rebounds and a steal while Sparks chipped in 7 boards and 2 steals. Rich Chapman (Newark, NJ) came in off the bench and registered 10 points to round out the home team's top scorers.
With the CACC setback the Bears set up a crucial regular season finale against Caldwell University on Saturday. A Bloomfield win against the Cougars assures them a spot in postseason play with the teams set for a 3:00 pm tip-off on Mark A. Corino Court.
If you missed the excitement of today's game LIVE you can watch it NOW on Demand by clicking HERE.
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