NEWARK, N.J. (November 21, 2017) – Tonight the Rutgers University-Newark women's basketball team opened New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) play by defeating New Jersey City University in The Golden Dome, 70-38. R-N wins its third straight to improve to 3-1 (1-0 NJAC) while NJCU falls to 0-4 (0-1 NJAC).

The Scarlet Raiders have now won 15 consecutive matchups against their NJAC rivals.

Junior Faith Ashby led the home squad with an all-around fantastic effort pouring in 19 points, grabbing seven rebounds (six offensive), dishing out six assists, and earning seven steals. Senior Nicole Skelly recorded her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 boards in just 18 minutes. Sophomore Barbara Hairs-Jackson rounded out the double-digit scorers with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field while pulling down nine caroms.

As a team, Rutgers-Newark turned the visitors over 36 times and took advantage of the additional possessions by scoring 37 points. The home side outrebounded NJCU 50-39 while grabbing 27 boards on the offensive glass and won the battle at the line, outscoring the Gothic Knights 23-12.  

The Scarlet Raiders dominated the game from the opening tip, taking an early 8-1 lead that ballooned to 18-3 by the end of the first quarter. Rutgers-Newark forced 11 turnovers in the period and scored 13 points off those turnovers. The home team continued to pour it on in the second period and junior Chelsea Scott put an exclamation point on a strong half by draining a 3-pointer off a feed from sophomore Comfort Akinbo to send the Scarlet Raiders into the break leading 37-12.

R-N held the visitors to just 18.2% shooting from the field while hitting 38.9% of its field goals. The home side also created 20 turnovers and netted 19 points from those forced errors. Faith Ashby led the way with 11 points, four assists, four rebounds, and four steals as she stuffed the stat sheet after only one half of action.

The Gothic Knights came out ready to chip into their deficit and were competitive for the first four and a half minutes as the teams played to an 8-8 draw. Still, the Scarlet Raiders outscored their opponent 9-5 the rest of the period including six straight points, all from the charity stripe, to close out the quarter.

Rutgers-Newark continued its momentum into the fourth as Hairs-Jackson scored on a lay-up, Faith Ashby finished off a fast break, and then Ashby netted a pretty reverse lay-in from an inch-perfect pass by Skelly. Sophomore Ania Harrell chipped in a freebie that made it 61-35, her team's largest lead of the game. The Scarlet Raiders cruised to the finish line as rookie Kiyanda Williams closed out the scoring and a 70-38 victory with her first collegiate made field goal and points.

R-N continues its home stand on Sunday with a non-conference matchup against Goucher College tipping off at 1 p.m.