CALDWELL, N.J. – The Bloomsburg men's basketball team dropped a back-and-forth matchup to Caldwell, 75-72, inside the Newman Center on Tuesday night.
 
The Huskies trailed by as much as 16 points in the contest before falling short in the final moments of the contest. Bloomsburg (1-4) recorded 44 points in the second half while shooting 48.6 percent (17-of-35) in the frame.
 
Matt Bengel (Erie, Pa./Mercyhurst Prep) led the Huskies in scoring with 21 points while going 9-for-17 (52.9 percent) from the floor. Tony Henderson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Taylor Allderdice) notched 14 points while draining all three of his three-point attempts. The senior guard also hauled in a team-leading eight rebounds and tallied three assists.
 
Louie Wild (Philadelphia, PA/Roman Catholic) posted 13 points and four assists while reigning PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Week, Mondyu Richards (Silver Spring, Md./Albert Einstein), recorded 11 points, five rebounds, three blocks and three steals. As a team, the maroon and gold shot 28-of 63 (44.4 percent) from the floor
 
Henderson got the scoring started a minute in, catching nothing-but-net on a wide-open three from the wing. After Caldwell (5-0) evened the score, Bengel hit a nearly identical three from the opposite wing to set the tone for the Huskies.
 
The lead would change five times over the course of the next five minutes of game action before the Cougars took control of the pace in the first half. Caldwell pushed its lead to as large as 16 points late in the frame but back-to-back triples from Henderson closed the gap to a 39-28 score going into the break.  
 
Bloomsburg opened the second half with a layup from Richards the began a 16-4 run to open the half. A layup from wild at the 15:25 mark gave the maroon and gold its first lead since the 13-minute mark of the first. A pair of threes from Danny Bruce (Edinboro, Pa./General McLane) moved the score to 50-43 and the largest lead of the game for the Huskies.
 
The Cougars slowly clawed their way back into the contest, regaining the lead with just over seven minutes to play. Bloomsburg and Caldwell exchange the lead four more times down the stretch, keeping each other within one possession until the final 88 seconds of the game. Back-to-back layups gave CU a 73-66 lead.
 
After clutch makes from Bengel and Wild put the Huskies down two with two seconds to play, Bloomsburg sent Kirk Parson to the line. After going one-for-two at the charity stripe the Huskies needed to go the length of the floor to tie the game. Jagger Dressler (Danville, Pa./Danville) heaved the ball the length of the court to Danny Bruce (Edinboro, Pa./General McLane) who tipped the ball to Bengel for a chance to tie it at the buzzer. Bengel managed to get the shot off in time but was unable to find the basket as the Huskies fell 75-72.
 
Bloomsburg returns to action on Friday, November 22 as they head out west for its opening game of PSAC action against Gannon at 5 PM.