Courtesy of Matt McLagan, Caldwell College SID

Caldwell, NJ (2/24/09)  The Caldwell College men's basketball team earned a hard-fought victory over Dominican College, 84-79 in an important Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference contest Tuesday evening in the George R. Newman Center. The win gives the Cougars (12-14 overall) an 8-7 record in the conference and wraps up a spot in the CACC Tournament, which begins next week. The Chargers complete their season with an overall record of 10-17, including a 5-11 mark in the CACC.

Caldwell can take third place in the CACC North Division with a win over Philadelphia University in the final regular-season game on Friday, Feb. 27. A loss puts the Cougars in fourth place. The third-place team visits Post University on Tuesday, Mar. 3 in the first round of the CACC Tournament, while the fourth-place team plays at Bloomfield.
 
A pair of three-pointers by senior guard Carl Augustin (Stony Point, NY) lifted Caldwell to an early 12-3 lead. The advantage grew to 12 points after a dunk by senior forward Manny Perez (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ) made the score 21-9 with 13 minutes left in the first half. But the Chargers flipped momentum to their side with a 22-2 spree to take a 31-23 lead with just under five minutes on the clock. Wayne Cottle (Montclair, NJ) hit two threes in the run, which saw the Cougars go 1-of-11 from the field. But the Cougars regained control of the game by scoring the final 16 points of the first half for a 39-31 halftime lead. Freshman guard Malcolm Austin (Albany, NY) had seven points, while Perez converted an acrobatic reverse dunk off a pass from freshman guard Nik Otovic (Kraljevo, Serbia) that ignited the run.
 
Caldwell maintained the lead for most of the second half until Dominican reeled off a 14-5 run capped by a three-pointer from Brendan McManus (Pearl River, NY) that put the Chargers ahead, 70-67 with 5:24 remaining. Austin answered for the Cougars with a three-pointer to tie the game, then a conventional three-point play by Perez sparked a 14-2 run for an 81-72 lead with 1:53 to play. Dominican never got closer than five points the rest of the way, as Caldwell clinched its fifth straight berth in the CACC Tournament.
 
Perez led Caldwell with 21 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, while his classmate Augustin scored 16 of his 20 points in the first half. Three freshmen also scored in double figures, as Otovic had 11, Austin had 10 and center Peter Diffley (Bellerose, NY) tallied 12.

Will Carty (Bronx, NY) notched a game-high 23 points for Dominican in his final collegiate game.  Cottle and McManus each had nine points in the loss.