GALLOWAY, N.J. – A 9-1 run late in the second half helped No. 13 William Paterson (24-3) rally for a 67-63 victory against host Richard Stockton (19-8) in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Men's Basketball Tournament championship game Feb. 25.

The win gave the Pioneers their 11th league title (1972, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2012) as well as an automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Division III Tournament.  The NCAA bracket will be released Monday, Feb. 27, at 12:00 p.m. via live video stream on ncaa.com.

The NJAC Player of the Year, junior guard/forward Lance Brown (Teaneck, N.J./Paterson Catholic) scored a game-best 20 points, adding nine rebounds, while freshman guard Jaques Conceicao (Massama-Lisboa, Portugal/Francais Charle Lepierre) contributed 14 tallies and five boards.  Junior guard Corey Chandler (Newark, N.J./Newark East Side) had 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, and junior Julio Rosario (Perth Amboy, N.J./Cardinal McCarrick) chipped in 10 points off the bench.

WP held the Ospreys scoreless for the first 6:06 of the contest as the Pioneers jumped out to an early 11-0 lead.  With the score 19-6 with 10:22 on the clock, Richard Stockton began to chip away, thanks in part to Chandler being forced to the bench with his third foul at the 7:23 mark.  The Ospreys reeled off 11 straight points, including three-pointers from Bill McDonough and DiAndre Brown, to get them within two (19-17, 6:10), and when William Paterson later made five straight free-throw attempts to build a 26-21 edge at the 1:53 mark, Stockton responded with two from the charity stripe, a steal that resulted in a DiAndre Brown fast-break dunk, and back-to-back treys from Dave Williams and DiAndre Brown, the last coming during the final five seconds to hand the Ospreys a 31-26 halftime lead.

WP once again kept Richard Stockton off the scoreboard for an extended period to open the half, but could only muster four points of its own before McDonough broke the drought with a three-pointer for the Ospreys (34-30, 14:11).  A Chandler three-ball and a Conceicao jumper briefly tied the score at 37-37 less than eight minutes into the second period, but Ibn Moye sank one of Stockton's nine treys of the evening three minutes later for a four-point margin (45-41, 9:56).

Brown answered with a jumper on the Pioneers' next possession (45-43, 9:31), and junior Thomas Goubadia's (Union, N.J./Union) putback and another Brown bucket pushed WP ahead, 47-45, with 8:20 to play.

Stockton was 3-for-4 at the free-throw line during the next 60 seconds before Brown snatched the lead back for good with a three-pointer at the 6:19 mark (50-48).  Chandler stole the ball at midcourt and slammed it home 18 seconds later, and after a 1-for-2 McDonough effort at the line, Brown and Rosario scored to extend the margin to seven (56-49, 4:10).

Darnell McCargo found the bottom of the net for Stockton, and after a WP miss, McDonough made the second of two free throws to make it a four-point game at 56-52 with 3:11 to play.  Goubadia converted a layup during the next series (58-52, 2:52) prior to a scoreless span of nearly a minute that saw the two teams combine for four missed shots and three turnovers. 

DiAndre Brown's layup at the 1:54 mark again made it a four-point spread (58-54), but Brown tipped in Chandler's miss from beyond the arc (60-54, 1:14).

McDonough sank a pair from the charity stripe (60-56, 0:59) before Conceicao and Kevin Johnson exchanged layups, resulting in a 62-58 score with 44 seconds on the clock.  Junior guard Rick DeStefano (Marlboro, N.J./Marlboro) was fouled, and the 85 percent free-throw shooter made his first attempt.  He missed the second, but Conceicao came up with the offensive rebound and scored the basket, handing the Pioneers a 65-58 advantage with 37.2 seconds remaining. 

DiAndre Brown was fouled on the other end of the court and made the second of two from the stripe (65-59, 29.3 seconds).  When William Paterson struggled to inbound the ball, the Ospreys came up with a steal and DiAndre Brown was once again fouled, this time with 18.6 seconds left.  He made the first, and Johnson rebounded the miss and found McCargo, who drained a three-pointer from the left wing to pull Richard Stockton within two at 65-63 with 14.5 seconds to play.

The Pioneers got the inbounds pass into the hands of their best free-throw shooter, and DeStefano made good on the opportunity when he drilled both attempts (67-63, 12.8 seconds).  Chandler stole the ball from Moye and Stockton was once again forced to foul.  This time, DeStefano missed the front end of the one-and-one with 6.6 seconds remaining, but Johnson's turnover during the waning seconds ended the Ospreys' comeback hopes.

McDonough finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds for Richard Stockton.  DiAndre Brown posted 16 tallies and eight boards, and McCargo had 12 points.

After shooting just 33.3 (7-21) percent during the first half, WP was 18-for-39 (.462) during the second period while limiting the Ospreys to a 9-for-27 effort (.333) in the final 20 minutes.

When coupled with the Pioneer women's 79-69 NJAC Tournament championship game victory against Kean Feb. 24, William Paterson became the first school to win both basketball titles during the same year since Rowan accomplished the same feat in 1999.