Newark, NJ... The College of New Jersey women's basketball team came up just short in its bid to hand Rutgers University-Newark its first loss of the season as the Lions fell to the Scarlet Raiders 60-56 on Saturday.

Scarlet Raiders improved to 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, while the Lions are 2-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play.

TCNJ trailed in the opening half before putting together a nice 16-2 run that covered the end of the opening frame and carried into the second. After falling behind 25-19, the Lions held the Scarlet Raiders scoreless for the final 3:30 of the half, while scoring 10 straight points to take a 29-25 lead into the half. The final bucket of the period came on a lay-up by Katie Occhipinti (Millington, NJ/The Pingry School).

The Lions started the second building on that run scoring six of the first eight points to claim a 35-27 lead. TCNJ then led by 12 at 45-33 when junior Hannah Tait (Staten Island, NY/Notre Dame Academy) sank a 3-pointer.

Rutgers-Newark then began to chip away and finished the game with a 27-11 run to preserve its unbeaten record.

Junior Jessica Imhof (Flemington, NJ/Hunterdon Central) topped TCNJ with a season-high 16 points, while Tait finished with 12. Senior Alex Gregorek (Mahwah, NJ/Academy of Holy Angels) and freshman Liz West (Monmouth Beach, NJ/Shore Regional) each finished with nine points.

The Lions are idle until Friday when they take on Delaware Valley College at 8 p.m. in the opening round of the R1 Sports Blue Jay Classic hosted by Elizabethtown College.