Montclair, NJ – Sophomore swingman Christian Garcia and senior point guard Al'Don Muhammad combined for 47 points to spark Rutgers-Newark past Montclair State, 77-60, in a New Jersey Athletic Conference win in The Panzer Athletic Center.

Garcia, who netted 15 of his career-high 27 points in the opening half, and Muhammad had six points each during the decisive 19-5 run which staked the Scarlet Raiders (4-2, NJAC 2-1) to a 40-26 lead at intermission.

After a pair of free throws by junior guard Daniel Singleton gave the Red Hawks a 21-19 lead with 7:05 left in the opening period,  Muhammad drained a pair of treys and freshman forward David Azoroh had a pair of inside buckets as Rutgers-Newark reeled off 13 unanswered points to take control of the game.

Garcia hit a pair of free throws with 1:19 remaining before the half before Singleton scored to make it 35-26 with 54 seconds left.  Freshman reserve forward Olumide Onajide scored on a jumper with 46 ticks left before an MSU turnover set up a jumper by Garcia with just 13 seconds remaining to give their Raiders a 14-point advantage at the half.

Ken Rubenstein ignited a 9-0 Red Hawk rally with a 3-point jumper and a layup as MSU whittled the Rutgers-Newark lead to 49-45 with 12:52 left.

After a layup by Raider sophomore guard John Snow and a pair of free throws by Rubenstein made it 51-27, Rutgers-Newark put away the decision with a 9-0 run.

Senior center Hussein Abdelmaksoud scored inside followed by a 3-point jumper by sophomore guard Doze Ikwuegbu to start the rally.  Garcia made back-to-back layups to push the Raider lead to 60-47 with 9:48 left.  MSU never got closer than seven points before Rutgers-Newark pulled away to win by 17.

Muhammad tallied 20 points and seven assists while Garcia added three assists and three steals. Azoroh hit five of seven shots from the floor on his way to 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.  Ikwuegbu notched six points, five rebounds and two assists.

Rutgers-Newark connected on a season's best 60% (30-50) from the floor to offset making just 13 of 23 free throws. Conversely, the Red Hawks hit just 36.5% (19-52) while draining 18-23 (78.3%) free throws.

Freshman forward Kevin McGorry made all seven of his free throws on his way to a team-high 20 points while Rubenstein hit seven of eight free throw net 15 points for the Red Hawks.  Junior forward Ordel Goldson added 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds for MSU (2-4, NJAC 0-3).