GLENSIDE, PA. – A 33-11 second-half surge allowed the William Paterson men's basketball team (4-1) to leave Arcadia (3-3) with a 77-75 victory Nov. 30. Senior guard Sandy Burgos (Fort Lee, N.J./Fort Lee) shot 8-for-14 (.571) from the field to led all players with 21 points, while sophomore guard Turrell McClendon (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway Tech) posted 15 tallies, four assists and eight rebounds.

Senior guard Jaques Conceicao (Massama-Lisboa, Portugal/Francais Charle Lepierre) collected 14 points, and sophomore forward Nick Smith (Elmwood Park, N.J./Memorial) had 13 tallies and eight boards.

The Knights came out on fire, scoring the game's first 10 points and shooting 61.5 (16-26) percent from the field en route to a 44-27 halftime lead. Arcadia extended that advantage to 20, 64-44, with 13:07 remaining, but WP began to chip away, getting it to single digits less than six minutes later with a McClendon layup (67-59, 7:38).

A 1-for-2 trip to the charity stripe by McClendon and a Burgos three-pointer cut the margin to four at 67-63 with 7:17 on the clock, but the only points either team managed during the next two minutes were a pair of Knight free throws.

McClendon's jumper again made it a four-point game (69-65, 5:05), and after two Arcadia misses from the charity stripe, Burgos drained another trey to pull the Pioneers within one (69-68, 4:02). Conceicao rebounded a Knight miss and was then sent to the line, making two free throws to hand William Paterson its first lead of the game, 70-69, with 3:11 left.

An Arcadia turnover resulted in a Conceicao layup (72-69, 2:34), and he later made one of two free-throw attempts (73-69, 0:55). When Travis Saltus drained a pair from the stripe to pull the Knights within two at 73-71 with 49 seconds remaining, McClendon converted a layup with the shot clock about to expire (75-71, 0:15). Saltus again went 2-for-2 at the free-throw line (75-73, 0:10), but Burgos was fouled and sent to the stripe with 7.3 seconds on the clock, and his two free throws again made it a two-possession game at 77-73. Arcadia's final bucket came with a second left.

WP flipped the shooting percentages during the second half, making 19 of 29 (.655) attempts while limiting the Knights to a 36.0 (9-25) percent effort.

Saltus led Arcadia with 20 points and seven assists, while junior guard John Landro finished with 19 tallies.

William Paterson will host New Jersey City on Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. The Pioneers will conduct their annual Hoops Mania event, with giveaways for WP students during the women's (5:30 p.m.) and men's doubleheader. Details are available at wpupioneers.com.

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