Box Score
Ewing, NJ... The College of New Jersey men's basketball had their backs to the wall in keeping their playoff hopes alive and responded with an exhilerating victory topping Kean University 73-63 in an emotional victory at Packer Hall.
The Lions (13-10, 5-7 NJAC) picked the right time to snap their four-game conference losing streak as they now head to Richard Stockton College for another must-win game in its regular season finale.
Senior Jay Frank (Brick, NJ/Brick Memorial) had a tremendous game scoring a game-high 24 points hitting big shot after big shot in the final home game of his career. Senior teammate Aaron Syvertsen (Midland Park, NJ/Midland Park) was also instrumental scoring 13 second-half points, nine of them coming from behind the arc.
The game started off slow as the conference rivals were deadlocked at 10 early on. The Lions' offense, however, fell silent as the Cougars (8-15, 5-7) went on a 10-2 run to take command of the game.
A three-pointer by senior Frank ignited a 7-0 run to finish the opening half as TCNJ trailed 26-21. That would be a sign of things to come as the defensive battle in the opening half turned into a shootout in the second half.
Kean came out hot from the intermission to take a 32-23 lead. But back-to-back three-pointers by Syvertsen and Frank got the crowd juiced as the Lions condensed the lead to 32-29. Freshman Brandon Johnson (Hamilton, NJ/Hamilton West) joined the party converting a pass from Frank to draw TCNJ within a point.
Sophomore Al Matlock (Trenton, NJ/Solebury) drained a three-pointer with 11:00 remaining giving TCNJ their first lead since the opening minutes of the game. The lead exchanged hands several times before Frank and Syvertsen went back-to-back again to push the Lions advantage to 53-48 with 6:10 left in the game.
Syvertsen drilled another from long-distance to make it a 62-55 game and the hosts never looked back. The win avenged a 61-54 loss to Kean in Union, NJ back in January.
Junior Steve Siracusa (New Providence, NJ/New Providence) had a big game under the boards grabbing 12 rebounds to go with 12 points on offense. Matlock finished with 13 points and senior William Jett (Browns Mills, NJ/Pemberton) chipped with seven points and four assists on Senior Day.
Senior Vinnie Darpino (Colonia, NJ/Colonia) led Kean with 22 points, while senior Akinwande Oshadi (Florence, NJ/Florence) scored 10 points. Senior Brian Lytle (Union, NJ/St. Marks) had nine boards for the Cougars.
TCNJ visits Richard Stockton College on Wednesday, February 17 for its season finale. Kean visits Rowan in its final contest of the season.
