William Paterson - 70, Farmingdale State - 65

Wayne, N.Y. - The Farmingdale State women's basketball team opened the 2016-17 season with a non-conference game at William Paterson on Tuesday night where they fell, 70-65.

Trailing 34-15 with 2:52 remaining in the second quarter, the Rams (0-1) used a 6-0 run over the next 1:08 to close within 13, 34-21. After a William Paterson (1-0) layup, FSC closed the half with an AJ Smith (Freeport, N.Y.) free-throw and a 3-pointer by Kaelyn Ward (East Hampton, N.Y.) to go into halftime trailing 36-25.

Farmingdale State opened the third quarter on a 7-2 run to quickly cut the deficit to 38-32. Trailing 47-39 with 4:15 left in the third, the Rams used four free-throws and an Essence Casey (Huntington Station, N.Y.) layup to pull within three, 47-44.

The Pioneers extended their advantage to 63-55 with 5:47 remaining, before a 3-pointer and back-to-back baskets from Casey cut the deficit to 63-62. After Janea Clark (South Plainfield, N.J.) converted a layup for the Pioneers, Smith connected on 1-of-2 at the line and Ward followed with a jumper to even the score at 65-65 with 1:22 left on the clock.

Over the final 1:04, the Pioneers closed the game with five unanswered points to earn the 70-65 season opening victory.

Casey finished with a team-high 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting, including 3-for-6 from behind the arc, while junior guard Tyra Harrison (Baldwin, N.Y.) tallied 15 points and had a game-high six assists and five steals. Smith recorded a double-double with 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds for Farmingdale State.

William Paterson was led by junior guard Jackie Rodriguez (Sayreville, N.J.) who had 21 points after shooting 7-of-17 from the field. Clark and senior guard Nikole Williams (Valley Stream, N.Y.) pitched in with 16 and 12 points, respectively.

The Rams next will travel to Amherst for a two day tournament on November 19th and 20th. FSC will open up against Babson on Saturday at 8:00 p.m.

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