BLOOMFIELD, N.J. – Entering Tuesday night's game against Bloomfield College, everything was tight in the North Division for Post University Men's Basketball. In fact, things were so tight that the winner of tonight's game would be leading the division while the loser would fall into fourth and potentially fifth place by the end of the night depending on the outcome of other conference games.
 
After besting the Bears on their home floor a few weeks ago in a thriller, the Eagles were unable to overcome early second-half foul trouble and a 24-5 run by Bloomfield, dropping the contest, 76-71, on Wednesday night. With the loss and Caldwell University's win, Post falls back to a four-way tie in the loss column with the Cougars, Dominican (N.Y.), and Felician University. Those three teams all hold a 7-5 record while Post currently sits at 6-5 with five more conference games to play.

THE BASICS

Post University 71, Bloomfield College 76

Post University (15-7, 6-5 CACC)

Bloomfield College (16-7, 8-4 CACC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Freshman point guard Ta'Quan Williams paced the Eagles through the opening 20 minutes with a team-high 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting while hitting 2-of-7 threes he took. As a team, Post opened the game shooting just 4-for-17 (23.5%) from long range and 14-for-39 (35.9%) from the field. Graduate forward Harrison Warnock lurked close behind after his big game against Wilmington University, scoring seven points on 3-of-6 shooting with one three and four rebounds in 10 first-half minutes.
 
While back-to-back dunks from junior guard Deavion Ellis and junior forward Edward Ngene looked to set the tone for the Bears in the contest, the Eagles would be unperturbed as they mounted a 6-0 run from Williams, junior point guard Rob Sanders, and junior forward Deng Deang to reclaim an early 6-4 lead. While most of the first half was spent playing from behind for Post, they never trailed by more than four points and even that would come early on in the contest.
 
There would be a total of nine ties and 10 lead changes in the opening 20 minutes which culminated in a 35-35 tie heading into halftime. On the Bloomfield side of things, they would shoot 13-of-30 (43.4%) as well as going 3-for-6 (50%) from three while seeing all nine players who touched the floor record points for them.
 
To open the second half, Post would take a 39-37 lead and go up by four points, 45-41, with 16:34 left in regulation before things would sway back in favor of Bloomfield for good. At that point, the Bears went on a 24-5 run that stretched nearly eight minutes to flip their four-point deficit into a commanding 15-point lead. While the Eagles would put the Bears in the bonus with 12:35 left, they would not commit another foul until the 5:27 mark of the half to help avoid further damage.
 
The double-digit lead would be maintained by Bloomfield until a 7-2 run by Williams and junior guard Quest Harris, who had 14 points in the game, made it an eight-point deficit with 4:44 to go before the lead quickly ballooned back up to 13 points only two minutes later. Post still trailed by 10 points with 1:42 left before a Williams three and a Sanders layup in the closing moments capped off the game as the Eagles dropped the contest, 76-71, to the Bears.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Quest Harris finished with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting across 26 minutes – The 14-point performance was a career-high for Harris who also grabbed two rebounds and had two assists
• Ta'Quan Williams finished with a team-high and game-high 19 points on 7-of-21 shooting – With those 18 points, Williams set a new career high and also made a career-high four three-pointers, seven field goals, and took the most field goal attempts (21) and three-point attempts (12) of his career as well
• This is the first time this season in which Post University has been tied going into halftime – This season the Eagles were 10-1 when leading and 5-5 when trailing at halftime entering today
• In the all-time series, Post University has lost three of their last four games against Bloomfield College after winning their previous four matchups

WHO'S NEXT
Post University will continue to head south as they take on Goldey-Beacom College on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM down in Wilmington, Delaware. After losing five straight games against the Lightning, the Eagles have won their last three games against them since the 2019-20 season with a pair of narrow finishes followed by a 12-point victory at home last season, 73-61.