GETTYSBURG, Pa. (November 20, 2015) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's basketball team improved to 2-0 on the young 2015-16 season with a 62-54 win over Washington & Lee University in the opening game of the Gettysburg College Tip-Off Tournament Friday night.
Senior forward Jordan McDaniel led the Scarlet Raiders with 21 points and nine rebounds, leading three veterans in double figures. Senior guard John Snow added 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while senior forward David Azoroh had 10 points.
Rutgers advances to take on the host Bullets Saturday at 4 p.m. for the tournament title. W&L (1-2) will play Pitt-Bradford in the consolation game at 2 p.m.
The Scarlet Raiders doubled up the Generals in the early going, opening a 10-5 margin 8:12 into the action, extending the lead to seven (14-7) after a pair at the line from Azoroh. Points were at a premium throughout the first half, but with 2:07 remaining a Snow steal resulted in a McDaniel fastbreak dunk to help Rutgers-Newark to its largest lead of the game to that point at 20-11.
A mini 5-0 run for W&L trimmed the R-N lead to four, but the Scarlet Raiders closed the period well with a three-pointer from senior guard Vik Singh and two at the line from McDaniel to take a 25-18 lead into the half.
The Generals came out with an 8-0 run to start the second half, taking a 26-25 lead, but sophomore guard Tyler Ofray found McDaniel for an old-fashioned three-point play to push the Scarlet Raiders back on top, 28-26.
The see-saw start to the second half would continue before a 6-0 spurt for R-N turned a 32-all deadlock into a 38-32 lead after a second-chance basket from freshman forward Mark Thomas.
W&L would not go away, fighting within two points on several occasions, the second being at 42-40 with
5:23 remaining, but two free throws apiece from Ofray and McDaniel sandwiched around a stop pushed the lead back to six, before another stop and Snow layup made it an eight-point game with 3:20 to go.
Junior guard Andy Kleinlein – who scored a career-high 22 points – hit a three to slow some of the Rutgers-Newark momentum, but the Scarlet Raiders answered with four-straight points to match their largest lead (nine) at 52-43 with 1:30 left.
Rutgers-Newark was excellent from the charity stripe down the stretch, going 10-for12 to close out the win.
The Raider defense was at times suffocating on Friday night as they held W&L to less than 21 percent shooting in the first half and 31.5 percent for the game. R-N forced 19 turnovers, recorded 10 steals and nine blocks, led by four thefts from Snow and four blocks from sophomore center Dave Lunsford. Rutgers-Newark shot 19-for-44 (43.2 percent) from the field, 1-for-7 from deep and an excellent 23-for-28 (82.1 percent) at the line. The Scarlet Raiders were minus-two in rebounding (32-30) but committed two less turnovers than the Generals (19-17), also piling up 11 assists in the game, four of which came from Snow.
Kleinlein went 6-for-9 from three to lead the Generals, also grabbing a team-high nine rebounds.
Ofray added six points and three assists, while Thomas scored six points (3-for-4) and tallied two steals off the bench. McDaniel needed just 11 shots for his 21 points, going 13-for-18 at the line.