Box Score
Galloway, NJ – The College of New Jersey women's basketball team played a strong second half at both ends of the floor as the Lions erased a small two-point deficit at the half as they went on to post a 56-44 road win at Richard Stockton College on Wednesday.
 
The win put the Lions at 2-1 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, while pushing its overall mark to 9-4. The team has also won four straight games as head coach Dawn Henderson inched closer to reaching the 400-win plateau. Wednesday's victory raised the veteran coach's total to 398.
 
The loss was only the second of the season for Richard Stockton as the Ospreys are 8-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
 
TCNJ trailed 29-27 at the break, but outscored the Ospreys 29-15 over the final 20 minutes and limited their hosts to 15.6 shooting during that span as they went 5-of-32 from the floor.
 
The Lions had things clicking right from the start of the new half as they put together a 9-2 run that was capped by a bucket from junior Candace Vigo (New Brunswick, NJ/New Brunswick Health Science Tech.) after she collected an offensive rebound.
 
TCNJ's defense also came up big during that spurt as they kept the Ospreys off of the scoreboard for 4:59.
 
Once Richard Stockton got that field goal, the Lions countered with another run scoring six straight points with Vigo kicking things off with two free throws. Senior Hannah Tait (Staten Island, NY/Notre Dame Academy) then scored on consecutive trips down the floor putting the visitors in front 42-34.
 
The biggest lead of the game came at 53-38 as sophomore Kelly Roddy (Belmar, NJ/St. Rose) sank a pair from the charity stripe. That lead came with 4:06 left in the game.
 
The Lions didn't allow Richard Stockton any closer than 11 points the rest of the way to secure the key conference victory.
 
Tait led TCNJ with 13, while freshman Kelly Coughlin (Trumbull, CT/Trumbull) also reached double figures with a dozen. Sophomore Liz West (Monmouth Beach, NJ/Monmouth Beach) had a steady game with eight points and seven rebounds, while Vigo chipped in with four points and a season-high 12 rebounds.
 
In the first half, the Ospreys led early only to see the Lions fight back and gain its first advantage at 8-7 as sophomore Tiffany DeTulio (Colts Neck, NJ/Colts Neck) knocked down a jump shot.
 
Richard Stockton reclaimed the lead at 11-9, before Coughlin sandwiched 3-pointers around an Osprey bucket from long range putting the Lions back in front at 15-14 with just over eight minutes left on the clock.
 
The game remained close through the rest of the period with the Lions leading by as many as four points at 22-18. Richard Stockton led by five points in the waning seconds of the half, but Tait drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer with an assist from West cutting that deficit to 29-27 at the break.
 
TCNJ continues conference play on Saturday, January 7 when they return to Packer Hall to face Rutgers-Newark at 1 p.m.