SOURCE: https://njcugothicknights.com/news/2019/1/5/201901-05_WBASKETBALL_vs_Stockton.aspx

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Senior captain Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) stepped to the free throw line with 0.5 seconds on the clock with a chance to break her school's 58-game conference losing streak and beat Stockton University for the first time in Jersey City in 20 years. The guard, sitting on 29 points, saw her first attempt rattle out, but she calmed her nerves and confidently stroked the second attempt, sending the New Jersey City University women's basketball team (3-9, 1-6 NJAC) to a 68-67 victory over Stockton University (4-9, 1-6 NJAC) on Saturday, January 5 on Coach Charlie Brown Court at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center.
 
The last time the Gothic Knight women's basketball team had won a New Jersey Athletic Conference matchup prior to Saturday was February 18, 2015 in a 72-66 win over Rutgers-Camden. Bacon had yet another outstanding game to lead the way, entering the fourth quarter two rebounds and two steals shy of a second-consecutive triple double before finishing with 30 points, nine steals, eight rebounds, and five assists. She was 11-of-27 from the field and 8-of-11 from the line.
 
Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) had help from her sister, Miesha Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune), who scored 13 points, topping a dozen for the fourth time in her past five games, after not reaching that figure once in the first seven games of the season. Freshman forward Zyearah Taylor-Gaston (Jersey City, NJ/Marist (via St. Anthony)) also helped the cause, scoring a career-high 13 points and dishing out a career-high four assists.
 
Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) and Taylor-Gaston demonstrated their tenacity, each playing a full 40 minutes with the NJCU bench short again (two subs) due to a plethora of injuries, before mid-year transfers are added to the roster next week.
 
The first half was tightly-contested, as the Knights scored the first five points of the game, but the Ospreys quickly came back to take the lead. The two teams exchanged the lead back-and-forth throughout the first quarter. That trend continued for most of the second, with neither team building a lead of more than six, and Stockton leading most of the quarter. Stockton was up by three, 32-29, at the half. Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) had 10 points in the second quarter and 18 in the first half.
 
When the Ospreys scored the first three baskets of the second half, extending their lead to double-digits in the process, it appeared as though the writing might be, once again, on the wall for NJCU, a team who has battled tough in conference contests this season but were yet to pick up an NJAC win.
 
The Knights steadied the ship late in the third, though, with Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) acting as facilitator as much as a scorer. One particularly sentient pass found fellow senior captain Jesenia Montalvo (Hillside, NJ/Bayonne) behind the arc on the right wing, with Montalvo connecting to cut the Stockton lead to five with just under a minute to go in the third. Stockton led 50-47 after three periods.
 
The Knights got to within as close as two early in the fourth, but Stockton pushed the lead back out to eight at the 5:20 mark thanks to a layup from junior guard Lajerah Wright (Atlantic City, N.J.). NJCU kept at it, though, with Taylor-Gaston scoring five of the next eight, the final of which was a game-tying free throw at the 3:18 mark, 60-60.
 
A layup from Stockton freshman guard Emily Donzanti (Toms River, N.J.), put the Ospreys back ahead on the next possession. When Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) came down the court in response, it was looking to create, rather than attack, and her faith was rewarded when she kicked out to an open sophomore guard Mya Neal (East Orange, NJ/Newark Tech) in the corner, who drilled a massive three-pointer to give NJCU its first lead of the second half (63-62) with 2:21 to play.
 
The game only got crazier from there. First, Miesha Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) hit a pair of free throws to extend the NJCU lead to three. Then Donzanti—who had an excellent game, with 10 points, five rebounds, and six assists—made a driving layup, and Wright—who led the team with 16 points (adding five boards and two blocks)—made one of her two free throws to once again tie the game up (65-65), with just 30 seconds to go.
 
NJCU head coach Pat Devaney called timeout and drew up a play for one final possession. The play call worked, with Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) once again trusting her teammates, kicking out to an open Christine Bizub (Fort Lee, NJ/Fort Lee), who drew a foul and headed to the line with 7.4 seconds remaining and the score tied. The senior guard calmly drilled both free throws, and Stockton responded with a timeout and a last-second play call of their own.
 
Junior forward Kirsten Flournoy (Sewell, N.J.) made the excellent catch-and-turn look on the baseline, but the entire play took barely two seconds, leaving NJCU with one final chance, tied at 67-67, with 5.0 seconds left in the game.
 
Fittingly, Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune), in her first season with NJCU after transferring in from Kean University, drove to the rim and drew contact, making the game-winning free throw with 0.5 left on the clock, snapping NJCU's long-running conference losing streak at 58 games. Stockton had one final chance to inbound the ball from midcourt but threw it away.
 
NOTABLES:

• Series: 64th meeting, Stockton leads 50-14. Prior to the game, the Ospreys had won 29 of the past 30 meetings, with the last NJCU win coming on February 6, 2014 in Galloway, N.J.
• NJCU defeated Stockton in Jersey City for the first time since a 51-40 decision on November 28, 1998—before most of the team was born.
• This was the first time the NJCU women's basketball team has won back-to-back games since December 10-13, 2014, and the first time they have won three out of four since January 3, 2015.
• Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) increased her season scoring average from 24.0 to 24.5 points per game. She now ranks third in Division III in scoring. With nine more steals, she moved into first in all of Division III women's basketball at 4.83 steals per game, as of the early Saturday afternoon games.
• Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) scored 30+ points for the third consecutive game.
• Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) now has 1,881 career points. She is 119 away from joining the 2,000-point club—something achieved by just 46 players in Division III history. The only other player in Division III near the milestone is Madison Temple of nation powerhouse Thomas More with 1,924 points.   
• Marajiah Bacon (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) has now scored in double figures 79 times in 80 career games between Kean (2015-18, 67 times in 68 games) and NJCU (12 times in 12 games). Other updated career totals for Bacon:
  • 20-Point Games: 54 (44 at Kean, 10 at NJCU)
  • 25-Point Games: 35 (30 at Kean, five at NJCU)
  • 30-Point Games: 19 (16 at Kean, three at NJCU)
  • 35-Point Games: 9 (eight at Kean, one at NJCU)
  • 40-Point Games: 4 (all at Kean; career high, 44)

 
UP NEXT:

• NJCU will enter the thick of a busy week, with Ramapo College (6-8, 1-6 NJAC) coming to town Wednesday, January 9 to play the Knights and a makeup home game with Pratt Institute the following night. Tipoff is on Coach Charlie Brown Court at 6:00 p.m.

 
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