WAYNE, N.J. – The William Paterson men's basketball team (9-1) out-scored Lehman (5-4) 17-9 down the stretch for a 76-68 home victory Dec. 16.

Knotted at 59-59 with 3:35 to play, junior Corey Chandler (Newark, N.J./Newark East Side) pushed WP ahead with a layup (61-59, 3:21), and freshman guard Jaques Conceicao's (Massama-Lisboa, Portugal/Francais Charle Lepierre) three-pointer from the right wing made it a five-point spread (64-59) with 2:04 left.  Senior guard Joey Castro (West Paterson, N.J./Passaic Valley Regional) drained a pair of free throws for a 66-59 advantage with 1:18 on the clock, and the Pioneers' lead never dipped below five for the remainder of the contest, as William Paterson was 12-for-18 (.667) from the free-throw line to put the game away.

Chandler scored 13 of his game-high 18 points during the second half, adding five assists.  Junior guard/forward Lance Brown (Teaneck, N.J./Paterson Catholic) contributed 16 tallies and a game-best 14 rebounds, Conceicao posted 11 points and nine boards, and junior guard Rick DeStefano (Marlboro, N.J./Marlboro) had 10 tallies.  Castro added nine points and three assists off the bench.

The Lightning controlled most of the early play, engineering a 9-0 run to build a 16-7 lead with 11:29 remaining in the first half.  The Pioneers got as close as two (21-19, 5:02), but Lehman took a 30-26 edge into the break.  The Lightning (11-28, .393) was slightly better than WP (10-32, .313) from the floor during the first 20 minutes, but William Paterson owned a 24-18 rebounding advantage.  Lehman's Kelvin Gil led all first-half scorers with nine points.

Gil led Lehman with 16 points, Phil Ductan had 14 tallies, nine rebounds and five assists, and Mathias Raggiotto chipped in 13 tallies.

WP dominated the glass (45-30) and shot 53.3 (16-30) percent from the field during the second period.  The two teams took care of the basketball, combining for just 22 turnovers.

William Paterson will play at Purchase Friday, Dec. 30, at 1:00 p.m.