A great backdoor cut for a dunk by Trevonn Pitts and strong free throw shooting in the final 15 seconds propelled the Chestnut Hill College Men's Basketball team to a 65-61 win over Dominican University in the quarterfinal round of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championship Tournament Tuesday night at Sorgenti Arena.

The Griffins improve to 16-13 overall and advance to the CACC Semi-Finals for the first time since 2011.  The Chargers, ranked #5 in the NCAA region Rankings (2/19) fall to 21-8 and await their fate from the NCAA Regional Advisory committee for a possible NCAA Tournament berth.

Chestnut Hill will play the CACC's #1 overall seed Caldwell University in their semi-final game Saturday evening at Thomas Jefferson University.

MJ Iraldi led the Griffins with 22 points while Pitts contributed 18.  Amir Warrick narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.  Nigel Haughton also had nine rebounds on the night.

DU's Wahaad Johnson's (27 points) driving layup with 2:57 tied the game at 59-59  before the two teams suddenly tightened their defense with neither team scoring for the next two minutes.  The Griffins had the coming out of a timeout with 49 seconds left and worked the ball around until Conor Regan  received a pass around the foul line, faked and found Pitts cutting backdoor for a go-ahead dunk.  Regan added two free throws with 15.6 seconds left  and one of two from the line as did Noah Charles in the final seven seconds to seal the win. 

The Chargers built up a 14-point lead early in the game, 20-6 with 11:15 left with the Griffins only cutting four points off the lead by halftime, entering the locker room 33-25.  CHC opened the second half with eight straight points to take their first lead of the game 35-33 with 14:33 left via a Pitts' 3-ball.  Six lead changes followed over the next nine-plus minutes with neither team leading by more than one possession and Johnson's jumper at the 5:10 mark tying the game at 52-52.  Justin Copman's long three with 3:29 left  put the Chargers ahead by three 59-56 with 3:29 left.  Iraldi followed with a traditional three-point basket twenty seconds later to tie the game and set the stage for the three minutes of action.

The Griffins shot 41.1% from the field (23-56) while the Chargers made 40% of their shots (24-60).  Dominican was dominant beyond the arc, making eight three-point baskets to the Griffins one while the Griffins outscored the Chargers from the free throw line 18-7.  Rebounds were about even with the Griffins holding a slight 39-37 edge.  CHC also outscored Dominican in the paint 34-21.