Goldey-Beacom received more solid play on offense, knocked down its free throws again when it mattered most and got a huge Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference victory with an 84-80 triumph over Bloomfield at the Jones Center in Wilmington, DE.
The Lightning held a 65-61 lead before it scored the next points to own an 11-point cushion. Senior David Robinson (Philadelphia, PA) canned a 3-pointer, sophomore Zakari McQueen (Petersburg, VA) drilled a jumper and Robinson slammed one home off a feed from freshman Tre Powell (Mount Laurel, NJ) with 6:30 remaining.
The Bears more than hung around, pouring in the next six points for a 72-67 deficit with 4:36 left. Edwards Ngene netted four points in that span.
GBC then was faced with a massive possession in a two-score game and it was McQueen, who has been on a torrid run of late, who delivered. Getting a pass from sophomore Julian Williams (Fayetteville, NC), McQueen canned a big jumper with 4:22 to go for a 75-67 margin.
Williams' 3-pointer with 3:19 left made it 78-69, but the Bears scored the next six points that included four from Starrell Hearns for a 78-75 game with 1:05 remaining.
Powell was fouled with 54 seconds to go and faced two big free throws, which he drilled for an 80-75 margin. But Hearns kept things interesting, hitting a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left for an 80-78 contest.
Powell again was on the spot as his jumper with 19 seconds remaining made it 82-78. However, Marcus Bucknall made a layup for Bloomfield as he was fouled with 7.2 seconds to go and now it was a two-point game again.
Bucknall missed the free throw and Robinson got the rebound before being fouled. He calmly hit twice from the line with 5.8 seconds remaining for the final.
McQueen simply was awesome again, pouring in a career-best 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting with five 3-pointers. He has averaged 24.3 points over his last three contests and has scored at least 20 points four times this season, all within the last six contests.
Powell scored 17 points, Robinson had 13 and 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the season and Williams added 10 for the Lightning, who shot 92 percent (11-for-12) from the foul line and buried a season-best 15 three-pointers.
It is the seventh time this season the Lightning have scored at least 76 percent from the foul line and the fourth time, including third consecutive, they have hit at least 10 three-pointers.
Counting its 88-83 win at Bloomfield last season, this marks the first time since March 5, 2010 and January 29, 2011 the Lightning (5-9, 2-1 CACC) have won consecutive meetings against the Bears.
Hearns scored 22 points, Ngene had 18 points, 16 rebounds and nine blocks, Bucknall netted 14 points and Zamorian Singleton added 11 for the Bears (7-5, 1-2)
Goldey-Beacom next Saturday hosts Dominican (NY) at 3:00 pm as part of a doubleheader with the women's team.
