BLOOMFIELD, N.J. – Every win is critical down the stretch for Post University Women's Basketball as the Eagles look to secure the top seed in the North Division for the CACC Tournament next month. On Wednesday evening, Post took a big step in the right direction with a 73-64 victory over Bloomfield College on the road. The win pushed the Eagles' lead to two games in the division over Felician University with four games left and put them in a situation where next Saturday's home game against the Golden Falcons could give them the division crown should they take care of business on Saturday against Goldey-Beacom College.
THE BASICS
Post University 73, Bloomfield College 64
Post University (15-7, 10-2 CACC)
Bloomfield College (5-17, 3-9 CACC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
After holding a 19-point lead at halftime in their last matchup against the Bears, the Eagles would have a much tighter, contested game in the opening 20 minutes which saw them take just a five-point lead, 36-31, heading into the break. A large part of that was because of junior guard Taneshia Tucker, who scored 42 points in the last head-to-head, scoring 17 points to open up the game on 7-of-13 shooting. To put it into context what she meant to Bloomfield, Tucker was responsible for seven of the 12 made shots by the Bears in the first half in which she played all 20 minutes.
Despite the last of Bloomfield's two leads coming at the 5:53 mark of the first quarter in which they lead 6-5, Post would never go up by more than eight points, 29-21, with 3:48 left in the second. For them, it was graduate guard TiJanae Simmons who registered 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting with a 3-for-6 performance from three to lead the way. Simmons had just 11 points with four made field goals in the December 30th matchup between the two teams and accounted for a third of all made shots for the Eagles who were 15-for-35 from the floor while raining in all three first-half threes they had.
Neither side had a player record more than six points in the first half outside of Simmons and Tucker with graduate forward Taina Pagan for Post and senior forward Tiara Mahorn for Bloomfield being the other two players to reach that mark.
Never relinquishing the lead in the second half, a key part of the third would be holding Tucker to just three points offensively for Bloomfield and the Post defense forcing others to score for the Bears. Nevertheless, the Eagle lead fell to one point, 44-43, with 5:43 remaining in the third before seven straight points by Post courtesy of graduate forward Trinity Bravo and graduate shooting guard Maya Klein. By the time Tucker hit her lone shot of the quarter with 53 seconds remaining, the Post lead was seven points, 55-48, with 10 minutes to play.
Bravo would go on to score the first five points of the fourth to give Post their largest lead to that point at 12 points, 60-48, with 8:44 left before the Bears attempted to mount a comeback in which they got the deficit down to seven following a 5-0 run. The Eagles went on to get their lead to a game-high 13 points with 5:55 to go, 66-53, before Bloomfield's last-gasp attempt.
With the game still in reach down eight, turnovers and missed free throws by both sides kept the scoring stagnant and a stretch in which the Eagles missed five straight free throws gave the Bears opportunities to pull closer which they would be unable to convert on. Graduate point guard Dede Stevenson broke that missed free throw streak with the score at 68-62 with 58 seconds left and started a stretch in which Post hit 5-of-7 shots from the charity stripe to help them put away the Bears with a 73-64 road win.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Trinity Bravo nearly had her third consecutive game with a double-double after dropping 10 points and collecting nine rebounds in the win
- Four players for Post University finished in double figures with TiJanae Simmons leading the way with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting in the win
- After allowing Taneshia Tucker to score 17 first-half points, the Post defense held the junior to just seven points in the second half on 2-of-10 shooting from the field – Tucker finished the game with a team-high 24 points on 9-for-23 shooting
- Naj White has caught fire in the last couple of games for Post, scoring in double figures again with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting – White is 9-for-17 in the last two games with 27 total points, it is the third time this year she has scored double-digits in back-to-back games
- Post University entered the week tied for 10th with Southern Connecticut in the D2CSC East Region Poll, this is the first time this season in which the Eagles have cracked the top 10
WHO'S NEXT
Post University closes its two-game road trip with a matchup against Goldey-Beacom College from the CACC's South Division. These two teams already met once this year for what was considered a non-conference matchup at the Drubner Center in which the Eagles came within two points of setting the program record for the largest margin of victory set at 54 points against Cheyney University back in 2019. Post won that game earlier this year by a final score of 98-46.
