Mens Basketball Team Wins CACC Championship

The mens basketball team celebrated winning the CACC Championship after the victory at Caldwell University.

The Dominican College mens basketball team won the 2018-2019 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship on March 10, 2019 after downing the top seed, Bloomfield College, 70-55, in a game played on Corino Court on the campus of Caldwell University.

With the win, Dominican (23-7) earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA East Regional Tournament. Making their third consecutive CACC Championship Final appearance, DC brings home the crown for the first time since joining the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II back in 2000.

Junior guard Daraja Rodwell (Baldwin, N.Y.) was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and to the All-Tournament Team.  Teammates Jonathan Garcia (Springfield, Mass.) and Ian Gardener (Norwalk, Conn.) also joined Rodwell on the All-Tournament Team.

The Chargers opened the game with the first five points, but the Bears rallied to take an 11-9 edge with just under 11 minutes left in the first half.  Gardener tied the game with two free throws and began a 17-1 tear that saw DC jump in front 26-12.  BC would cut the lead to 26-21 in the final two and half minutes, but Rodwell recorded back-to-back trey’s and Tavon Ginyard (Brentwood, N.Y.) closed out the half with a layup to give the Chargers the 34-21 lead at the intermission.

Dominican would lead by as many as 20 points in the second half as Ginyard connected on a three-point bucket (68-48) with 3:31 left in regulation en route to the 70-55 win.