'Cats Edged By Dominican, 88-87
Courtesy of Erin Harvey, SID at Wilmington College
NEW CASTLE, DE (1/26/06) Tim Sowden's 12 foot jumper fell just short as time expired, and the Chargers of Dominican College squeaked away with a thrilling 88-87 victory over the Wildcats of Wilmington College in CACC men's basketball action Thursday evening at the Pratt Center.
Wilmington College opened the game on fire, jumping to an 19-8 lead after the first seven and a half minutes of the game. Dominican rallied back with a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to two points at the 8:29 mark.
The Chargers would not be done, and mounted another 10-2 charge to close out the last four minutes of the first half. Those sparks sent Dominican into the half with the seven point advantage.
The Chargers led for the entire second half, but Wilmington made it very interesting in later parts of the period. Dominican was up by as many as eleven points eight minutes in, but the Wildcats never gave up. At the 2:30 mark, the Chargers had a 86-77 lead after a jumper by Will Carty (Bronx, NY), and the game looked to be in hand. Wilmington, powered by a 7-2 run, cut the lead to just four points with 29 seconds left.
The 'Cats' Taurean Temple nailed a three-pointer with eight seconds remaining, giving Wilmington a second chance, down by only a single point. Dominican's Damien Davis (Windsor, CT) was fouled on the ensuing possession, and proceeded to miss both free-throws.
Still trailing by only one, the Wildcats brought the ball in-bounds, and pushed it up to half court before calling time out. Wilmington's Chris Rogers got the ball in on the designed play, penetrating into the center of the lane before dishing it off to Tim Sowden. Sowden had a clean shot at the basket, but his 12 foot jumper clanked off the front of the rim, sending the Wildcat players and fans off with yet another heart-wrenching loss.
Wilmington was led by senior guard Rogers, who had 23 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals in a great all-around performance. Rogers also shot 15-of-20 from the charity stripe on the night. Sophomore swingman Temple added 21 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks as he played well on both ends of thefloor. Fellow sophomore, Sowden chipped in with a career high 17 points and 5 boards. Senior guard Bradford Morris had 12 points for the 'Cats.
Dominican was led by Prince Jackson's (Schenectady, NY) outstanding game. Jackson had agame-high 37 points, as he shot an astounding 12-of-16 from the floor. He also added 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Tahiem Stewart (Harlem, NY) chipped in with 17 points and 9 boards, while Carty had 11 points for the Chargers.
Wilmington was out-rebounded by the Chargers 47-34, and was out-shot 49 percent to 44 percent. The difference in the game was the three-point shooting by the Chargers. Dominican hit 9-of-15 from behind the arc, compared to just 2-of-8 for Wilmington. The rebounding margin proved to be critical, as the Chargers used their 17 offensive rebounds to create 23 second chance points.
Following the game, Wilmington dropped to 2-10 in the CACC and 2-15 overall on the season. Dominican improved to 4-8 in the conference and 5-12 overall.
DC will be back in action on Saturday when they host the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia in the 19th Annual Bobby Mulligan Game. Game time is 3pm in the Hennessy Center.