Union, NJ... The College of New Jersey women's basketball team had a strong opening half against fourth-ranked Kean University in the New Jersey Athletic Conference opener for both teams, but the Cougars surged past the Lions in the second period for a 72-56 win on Wednesday.

TCNJ trailed early, but rallied to take a three-point lead into the half. Kean then outscored TCNJ 42-23 over the final 20 minutes to secure the win.

The loss put the Lions at 0-1 in the NJAC and 2-3 overall, while the Cougars open conference play at 1-0 and are 5-0 overall.

The game started with a pair of runs with the Cougars scoring the first eight points of the game, while the Lions stormed back with an 11-0 run capped off by a bucket senior Alex Gregorek (Mahwah, NJ/Academy of Holy Angels) and a 3-pointer by junior Jessica Imhof (Flemington, NJ/Hunterdon Central). That run resulted in an 11-8 Lion lead.

TCNJ took its biggest lead of the half at 22-12 as freshman Liz West (Monmouth Beach, NJ/Shore Regional) converted on a lay-up with 10:40 left in the period.

The Lions went into the half holding a 33-30 advantage.

After Gregorek pushed the difference to five points in the opening minute of the new half, Kean put together a 14-0 run as the Cougars regained the lead for the first time since early in the contest. Imhof snapped that run with another 3-pointer closing the gap to 46-37.

Kean responded with another run as they scored 10 of the game's next 12 points pushing the margin to 56-39.

The Lions got it back to a 12-point game at 56-44 as freshman Tiffany DeTulio (Colts Neck, NJ/Colts Neck) sank a three and Gregorek hit once from the floor.

That would be as close as TCNJ would get the rest of the way as the Cougars remained undefeated.

Gregorek and Imhof each finished with 11 points and six rebounds for the Lions, while sophomore Candace Vigo (New Brunswick, NJ/New Brunswick Health Science Technology) also reached double figures with 10 points.

TCNJ remains on the road as they head to Rutgers University-Newark to take on the Scarlet Raiders in a 6 p.m. start on Saturday, December 4.