NEWARK, N.J. (February 13, 2016) - The Rutgers University-Newark men's basketball team earned a hard-fought 69-63 New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) victory over Rowan University on Senior Night at The Golden Dome Arena.

With the win, the Scarlet Raiders improve to 13-4 in the NJAC and 18-6 overall with one regular season game left - at Ramapo College on Wednesday night. The Scarlet Raiders need to win and Stockton University needs to lose at Montclair State University for R-N to get a first round bye in the NJAC Tournament. Rutgers-Newark is currently tied for second with Stockton, but the Ospreys hold the tiebreaker. Ramapo is in fourth place at 12-5 as seeds three and four in the tournament get home games in the opening round, while seeds one and two earn byes into the conference semifinals.

Prior to tip-off, Rutgers-Newark honored its seniors in forward David Azoroh, guard Morgan Dixon, forward Jordan McDaniel, forward Olumide Onajide, guard Vik Singh, guard John Snow, guard Ricky Stephens and center Shiloh Siegenthaler as part of its annual Senior Night ceremony.

The Scarlet Raiders were led by 23 points, four rebounds and three assists from McDaniel, and a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double from Azoroh who now has 1,000-plus points and 500-plus rebounds in his career. Snow had 13 points and six rebounds, and sophomore guard Tyler Ofray had seven points, five boards, two assists and two blocks.

Rutgers-Newark shot 44.7 percent from the field (21-for-47), 30 percent (3-for-10) from three and 77.4 percent at the line, going 24-for-31. The Scarlet Raiders and Profs each had 34 rebounds, and Rutgers ended the contest with five steals, three blocks and nine assists. Rowan (9-15 overall, 6-11 NJAC) shot 34.5 percent (19-for-55) from the field, 13.6 percent (3-for-22) from three and 81.5 percent (22-for-27) at the line.

Three Profs were in double figures as freshamn guard Nick DePersia had 16, junior forward Ben Hills had 12 and junior forward Shawn Wilson had 10.

The Scarlet Raiders led wire-to-wire for the third time in four games, getting a jumper from Snow 25 seconds in and never trailing again. R-N ended up scoring the first six points of the game, and a jumper from Stephens eight minutes in helped the hosts to a 14-4 lead.
 
The first-half advantage would move to 12 with 7:33 left after a made free throw from McDaniel, but the Profs made a run to get within four at the 4:47 mark. R-N would slow the momentum with a three-pointer from Singh and layup from Azoroh to go back up seven, eventually taking a 32-25 advantage into the locker room.
 
Early in the second, two Azoroh free throws put Rutgers-Newark up 39-27, but the Profs slowly cut into the Raider margin, again getting within four points after a Hills three-pointer.
 
The Scarlet Raiders did enough to stay in front, getting free throws from McDaniel and a nice move underneath from Azoroh to go back up seven with 5:02 left (57-50), but the guests battled, finding a way within two points with just 1:40 on the clock.
 
Snow scored a bucket to give R-N some breathing room, but a pair and stop from Rowan gave the Profs a chance to tie. Snow would come up huge for the Raiders with a steal and three-point play to make it 66-61 with 22 seconds left, and that would be enough as Rutgers-Newark hung on for a grind-it-out win – its 18th of the season against just six losses.
 
Wednesday night's regular-season finale at Ramapo is set for a 7:30 p.m. tip.