Ewing, NJ: The College of New Jersey men's basketball team dropped a 79-59 decision to New Jersey Athletic Conference opponent Ramapo College in Packer Hall.
The Lions (3-16, 0-8 NJAC) did their best to stay with the Roadrunners (16-4, 7-1), but the North Division leaders had too much depth of talent as they rolled to their 16th win of the season.
TCNJ was led by junior Pete Kelly (Hamilton, NJ/Nottingham) who had a team-high 10 points, while senior Steve Siracusa (New Providence, NJ/New Providence) narrowly missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Ramapo rebounded from its lone conference defeat at the hands of Kean University 75-70 a week ago. The Roadrunners made up for the absence of their leading scorer Ahmad Hassan (Edgewater, NJ/Leonia) by dominating underneath out-rebounding the Lions 50-30. Junior Elgin Brown (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) led the way with 14 boards and 19 points, while sophomore Will Sanborn (Red Bank, NJ/Red Bank Regional) had a game-high 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting.
Non-stop action highlighted the opening half as the Lions gave the Ramapo all they could handle. Freshman Daniel Balevski (West Windsor, NJ/West Windsor-North) brought the crowd to its feet scoring five straight points to draw within two after Ramapo had opened up a nine-point lead. Balevski finished with a career-best five points and three rebounds.
The Lions forced 11 Roadrunner turnovers in the first period, but returned the favor coughing up the ball up 13 times . Ramapo increased its advantage to 12 points late in the half, but Pete Kelly drained his second three-pointer of the half at the buzzer to cut the Roadrunner lead to 36-30 at the intermission.
The Roadrunners jumped out to an 8-2 run to start the second half and never looked back.
Junior Dan Bucher (New Providence, NJ/New Providence) matched a career-high with eight points for TCNJ, while classmate Al Matlock (Trenton, NJ/Solebury) chipped in with seven points and a career-high five steals.
The Lions return to Packer Hall on Wednesday night when they host South Division rival Kean University at 8 p.m. Ramapo returns to action on Saturday when they take on NJAC rival Montclair State University.