A late second half rally fell short as the Chestnut Hill College Men's Basketball team dropped an 85-81 decision to the University of Bridgeport Tuesday night in the Central Atlantic collegiate conference quarterfinals at Sorgenti Arena in Philadelphia.
The Griffins finish their season at 14-14.
IV Pettit scored a career-high 30 points (8-16 FG, 11-14 FT) while Noah Charles added 16 and Alejandro Redondo Cybak chipped in 15. Neal Hill grabbed 11 rebounds and four blocks to lead all players. Charles, Hill and Kamal Lee led the team with three assists apiece.
The Griffins led early by as many as eight in the first half before the Purple Knights used a 15-5 run in the final six minutes to lead 45-37 at halftime.
Bridgeport opened up a double digit lead in the early minutes of the second half and expanded it to 16, 66-50 with 11:07 left. Chestnut Hill followed with a 9-2 run over the next 1:44 to close within nine 68-59 with three point baskets from Lucas Dunn and Charles highlighting the run. Following a UB basket to go back up by 11, the Griffins made another run, a 12-4 spurt to make it a one possession game 74-71 with 4:31 left getting contributions from five different players.
Bridgeport upped the lead back to seven but a dunk from Hill and a three-point basket from Pettit closed the gap to two, 78-76 with 2:37 left. The Purple Knights pushed the lead back to five but the Griffins whittled it down to two twice in the final 1:06, the last on a pair of Petit free throws with seven seconds left. UB added two free throws in the final six seconds to seal the win.
Aliou Cisse led four Purple Knight players in double figures with 19 points and also led the team with six rebounds  Amadou Traore had five steals and 17 points while Caleb Jacobs had five assists and 16 points. Justin Hendrick also had 16 points.
For the game, Bridgeport shot 49.3% from the field (36-73) while the Griffins shot 45.8% (27-59). CHC made two more three point baskets than UB but the Purple Knights were more efficient (6-14, 42.9% to CHC's 8-23 (34.8%). Chestnut Hill outscored Bridgeport on the free throw line 19 to 7 and had a slight rebounding edge 40-39.
Bridgeport advances to Saturday's CACC Semi-final games with the win.
