CALDWELL, N.J. The Felician College mens basketball team won the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference championship with an 84-79 title game victory over Goldey-Beacom College on Saturday afternoon at the Newman Center on the campus of Caldwell College. Felician claimed the first conference crown in the 14-year history of the program, and earned the CACCs automatic bid into next weekends NCAA Division II East Regional Tournament.
Junior forward/guard Devon Young (Monmouth Junction, NJ/South Brunswick) shot 9 for 10 from the field and recorded 23 points and eight rebounds for the Golden Falcons (26-4) en route to being named the Tournaments Most Valuable Player. Sophomore guard Antoine Obery (Roselle, NJ/Abraham Clark) turned in 22 points, 15 rebounds, eight assists and four steals and junior forward Suquan Gary (Paterson, NJ/PCTI) added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Both were named to the All-Tournament team. Felician owned a 47-26 rebounding advantage.
Felician, ranked 10th regionally and the No. 2 seed from the CACC North Division, never trailed in the game. Behind 16 first-half points from Young, the Golden Falcons opened up their largest advantage, 46-26, at halftime. But Goldey-Beacom, the CACC Souths No. 2 seed, pulled within 59-52 with 9:14 to play in regulation, then went on a 8-0 run to make the score 75-71 at the 3:48 mark. But after the Lightning were still down four and forced to foul with under two minutes to go, Felician made seven of its next eight at the line to secure the victory. Kyle White (Georgetown, DE/Cape Henlopen) and Samuel McDuffie (Bronx, NY/Bordentown) each scored 21 points for GBC (19-10).
Under first-year head coach David DeFerrari, the Golden Falcons earned the crown by defeating North No. 3 seed Dominican (N.Y.) College, 69-58, last Monday at home and South No. 1 seed Philadelphia University, 90-77, in overtime on Friday at Caldwell before Saturdays win. For the tournament, Young scored 80 points with 22 rebounds, while Obery recorded 64 points, 41 rebounds, and 17 assists.
The trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament will be a first for any Felician team sport. The tournament selections will be announced Sunday at 9:30 p.m. and Webcast on www.ncaa.com.
Felician has seven previous CACC championships in mens cross-country and two in mens soccer.
