Box Score
UNION, N.J. (1/16/08) –
Aziz hit 10-of-12 shots from the charity stripe and added seven rebounds. Molinelli added 11 points and five rebounds, while senior guard Jeff Warner (Jackson, N.J.) had a game-high nine rebounds to go along with nine points.
For Kean (5-10, 1-3 NJAC), senior guard Lamar Wright (Galloway, N.J.) finished with 16 points in his first start since returning to the Kean lineup after missing eight games with an injury.
The Cougars trailed by 12 with just over four minutes left, cutting the deficit in half at 60-54 with 1:32 left in the game and eventually to four (60-56) with 39 seconds left.
After four three throws from Aziz pushed the Lion lead back to six on separate occasions, Kean senior guard Will Floyd (Eustis, Fla.) pulled Kean within 64-61 with six seconds remaining. Aziz made 1-of-2 in the final seconds before a layup by Kean junior Sean Carter (Freehold, N.J.) with less than a second left put the final margin at 65-63.
In the first half, the Cougars led by as many as nine points at 31-22 following a three-pointer from Wright with 4:08 remaining in the half. The Lions closed out the half with seven unanswered points, including back-to-back three pointers from junior guard Jeff Molinelli (Pennington, N.J.), to pull within 31-29 at the break.
Wright led the Cougars with 12 points, hitting 5-of-7 shots from the floor, while Molinelli had 11 points and four rebounds for TCNJ. Senior co-captain Corey Gilmore (South Plainfield, NJ) added 9 points for the Lions in the win.
The Lions used a 15-2 run midway through the second half to build the lead to 12 points at 58-46 with 6:41 left.
In a game that featured 10 lead changes and four ties, The College of New Jersey shot 46.2 percent for the game (24-of-52), while the Cougars used 21 points from the bench.
For the Cougars, freshman forward Jonathan Jones (Linden, N.J.) had 12 points and five rebounds, while Carter and Floyd had 11 and 10 points, respectively, off the bench.
TCNJ returns to action on Saturday, January 19, when they host Richard Stockton College in a 1 p.m. NJAC battle.
Karyn Pinter
Director of Student-Athlete Services
The College of New Jersey senior forward
Mark Aziz (Hackettstown, N.J.) scored a game-high 21 points and the Lions (5-8, 1-2 NJAC) held on down the stretch for a 65-63 victory over host Kean University in New Jersey Athletic Conference men's basketball action on Wednesday evening. The victory marked the first NJAC win for TCNJ's interim head coach, Matt Hunter.
