ORANGEBURG, N.Y. – The Philadelphia University women's basketball team claimed its first Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) championship since 2009 with a 52-46 victory over Bloomfield in the final of the CACC Tournament Saturday afternoon in Dominican College's Hennessy Center.

In addition to the conference championship, the Rams (25-6)—who won the conference for the second time in program history—also receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It will be the program's ninth appearance, second in a row, in the NCAA field.

The NCAA Tournament field of 64 will be unveiled on Sunday, March 6 at 10 p.m. on www.ncaa.com.

Philadelphia—a winner of nine in a row—recorded 25 wins in a season for the fifth time, the first since 1997-98.

Jessica Kaminski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Wood) was Philadelphia's leader scorer and rebounder with 14 points and nine rebounds. Tournament MVP Mary Newell (Lansdale, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie) had 11 points and four rebounds.

Kaminski and Newell played a huge role in getting the Rams a 17-7 lead after the first quarter, combining to score the team's final 15 points. Behind all seven of Newell's first-quarter points, Philadelphia sprinted out to a 10-3 cushion.

Kaminski, who scored eight points in the quarter, was responsible for the final seven points, including a layup with 1:24 left to put the Rams up by 10 for the first time (17-7).

The Rams also played tremendous defense in the opening 10 minutes, forcing Bloomfield (24-7) into 2-of-13 shooting and six turnovers.

In the second quarter, Philadelphia took its largest lead of the afternoon when Jackie McCarron (Harleysville, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) made two free throws 43 seconds before halftime to make the score 29-16.

The Bears came out hot in the third quarter, making their first three shots to trim the Rams' lead to 29-27 with 2:30 gone. Ariel Wilson—Bloomfield's leading scorer with 16 points—hit a pair of 3-pointers during the 8-0 spurt.

With 3:35 left in the third, Rachel Day (Horsham, Pa./Archbishop Wood) knocked down a 3-pointer to start an 8-0 run than allowed the Rams to reclaim their 10-point advantage (42-32). Once again, Philadelphia played shutdown defense, not allowing Bloomfield to make any of its final five shot attempts of the quarter.

The Bears only managed to get as close as four (50-46) on a Tianna Smith layup with 24 seconds left in the game.

Bria Young (Philadelphia, Pa./Prep Charter) added 10 points, six in the third quarter, in the victory.

Philadelphia finished the game shooting 43.2 percent (19-of-44) from the field and held Bloomfield to 29.3 percent (17-of-58)—10 points below its season average. Even though the Rams outscored the Bears in the paint, 28-16, Bloomfield owned a 39-33 rebounding advantage.

Arnao and Kaminski joined Newell on the CACC All-Tournament Team.