Box Score

New York, NY … Riding an explosive second-half performance, The College of New Jersey men's basketball team cruised to a 77-41 win over the City College of New York in New York on Thursday night.
 
After wading through a dismal first-half that saw the two teams tied at 19 at the intermission, the Lions (6-4) employed a complete turnaround in the second period, outscoring the Beavers (1-10) 55-22 to close out their sixth win of the season. TCNJ hit 23-of-33 shots in the second half and shot 51 percent from the floor in the contest.
 
Sophomore Dan Balevski (West Windsor, NJ/West Windsor South) had his best performance in a TCNJ uniform notching career bests with 16 points and eight rebounds. The 6' 5” forward drained six of seven shots from the field, while five of his eight boards were on the offensive end.
 
Sophomores Matthew Rista (Point Pleasant, NJ/St. Anthony's) and Alex Fox (Washington, NJ/Westwood) also reached double figures with 10 points each and freshman Kyle Cancillieri (Lincroft, NJ/Middletown South) pulled in a game-high 11 boards.
 
The Lions jumped out to an 11-3 lead paced by Balevski, who tallied seven points in the opening four minutes of play. CCNY's Hector Hernandez, who led all scorers with 22 points, then dialed up a three-pointer with 15 minutes remaining to make it an 11-6 game. From that point, both teams went ice cold on offense for the remainder of the half.
 
Rista converted a layup with 13:08 on the clock and TCNJ would not register another field goal until Fox dropped in a layup with 4:52 remaining in the half. Fortunately for the Lions, the Beavers only managed to hit three buckets during that same period of time.
 
Whatever message head coach Kelly Williams delivered at the half, it got through to his players. TCNJ caught fire, hitting six of their first eight shots in the second half during a 16-4 run to take command of the game. They continued to pour on the offense, draining six of their next nine field goal attempts and held a 51-39 lead with 9:32 to play.
 
After coming away empty on six, three-point attempts in the opening period, the Lions knocked down four of their first six in the second half. Rista drilled a pair while Fox and junior Donovan Smalls (Union, NJ/Union) each found the bottom of the net from downtown.
 
Junior Brandon Johnson (Hamilton, NJ/Hamilton West) had a solid day running the point hitting all three of his shots for six points, dishing a season-best five assists, and committing just one turnover. Senior Kyle Rawson (Warren, NJ/Watchung Hills) added nine points and two steals while Cancillieri finished with six points on three-of-five shooting.
 
TCNJ will open up the 2012 portion of its schedule on Tuesday, January 3 at FDU-Florham. The game is schedule for 7 p.m.