Men’s Basketball Wins Back-to-Back CACC Championships

Jonathan Garcia was named the MVP of the CACC Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament.

The Dominican University men’s basketball team won their second straight Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship on March 8 after defeating the overall top seed Thomas Jefferson University, 75-63, in a game played in Bobby Morgan Arena and hosted by the University of the Sciences.

With the win, Dominican (25-6) earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA East Regional Tournament.

Senior Jonathan Garcia (Springfield, Mass.) was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and to the All-Tournament Team.  Teammates Daraja Rodwell (Baldwin, N.Y.) and Jason Copman (Cumberland, Md.) were also named to the All-Tournament Team.

Jalen Burgess (Springfield Gardens, N.Y.) and Garcia led four players in double figures with 19 points a-piece.  Burgess added a game best eight rebounds and four assists, while Garcia had four assists, three rebounds and three steals.

Freshman Tedrick Wilcox (Pawtucket, R.I.) had 16 points and seven rebounds in the win.

Jefferson led 40-39 with 14:47 left in regulation when the Chargers scored 11 unanswered points to pull ahead 50-40.  The Rams would cut the lead to four points (57-53) with a little over four minutes to play,  but Dominican used a 9-0 run to give them some breathing room with under two minutes to go.  Free throws from Wilcox gave DC their biggest lead, 68-55, and they went on to the 75-63 victory. 

The win earned the Chargers the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA East Regional tournament, which was scheduled to be played at the University of Bridgeport on March 14-17.  The NCAA cancelled the regional tournament, however,  because of the COVID-19 outbreak.