The number one seeds from both the North and South Divisions were victorious on Saturday in the semifinals of the 2023-24 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Men’s Basketball Championship at the Newman Center in Caldwell, NJ.

The highlight on Saturday was a thrilling game between Bloomfield College and Dominican University which ended with the Bears winning by a narrow margin of 86-85 to advance to Sunday’s final.

The other semifinal on Saturday featured Thomas Jefferson University pulling away late for 70-58 win over Post University.

Jefferson and Bloomfield will meet up in the CACC Championship Final on Sunday at noon in Caldwell, with the winner earning the league’s automatic bid to next weekend’s NCAA Division II East Region Tournament at a site to be determined. When these teams met in the regular season, Jefferson won 90-68.

S#1 Jefferson 70, N#2 Post 58 | BOXSCORE

After a slow start and going down by as many as nine points at the start of the first half, Jefferson pulled it back to a tie game at 31 all at the break. In the second half, Jefferson outscored Post, 39 – 27, en route to victory.

Erik Timko led the way for Jefferson and was the top scorer in the game with 19 points. Timko went a perfect 9-9 from the free-throw line. Bismark Nsiah scored 15 on 70 percent shooting and added seven rebounds. Ashton Miller nearly provided a double-double off the bench scoring 10 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Deng Deang was Post’s top performer as he had a 15 point, 10 rebound double-double.

N#1 Bloomfield 86 N#3 Dominican 85 | BOXSCORE

Bloomfield and Dominican went down to the wire as each team made clutch shots throughout the matchup to keep the game close. Bloomfield led 86-81 with :21 left, but Dominican knocked down a three pointer with :18 left. However the Chargers missed the second of two free throws that would have tied the game with seven seconds left.

Izaiah Poole & Al Fatir Connor were the leading scorers for Bloomfield each scoring 14 points as the Bears won a thriller against Dominican. Defensive Player of the Year Edward Ngene had a double-double himself with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Ngene, who leads DII in blocks, had four swats. Javel Cherry scored 21 points for Dominican going 4-7 from behind the arc.