Box Score

Senior Night

Ewing, NJ … The College of New Jersey men's basketball team dropped its final home game of the regular season to Kean University 55-42 on Wednesday night.
 
The loss eliminates the Lions (8-16, 2-10) from New Jersey Athletic Conference post-season contention. The Cougars (6-18, 5-7) secured an NJAC playoff berth with the victory.
 
Senior Albert Matlock (Trenton, NJ/Solebury) matched a season-high with 17 points in his final game in Packer Hall. Sophomore Jason Chalmers (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) added six points, while freshman Emmanuel Matlock (Trenton, NJ/Solebury) dished out six assists and had four steals.
 
Sophomore Xavier Fuller (Carteret, NJ/Carteret) led Kean with 15 points and five boards. Sophomore Michael Burton (Irvington, NJ/South Plainfield) added 11 points and three steals, while senior Andrew Kirey (Millville, NJ/St. Augustine) finished with eight points and a game-high seven rebounds.
 
Kean held a 25-22 lead at the midway point as they outscored TCNJ 16-4 in the paint. The lead never got above six points, as it changed three times in the opening half.
 
Albert Matlock had the hot hand for the Lions, tallying 11 points in 17 minutes of play. The Cougars countered that with the play of Fuller, who netted nine points and grabbed five rebounds in 11 minutes.
 
It was a two-point game or less for the first seven minutes of the second half until Chalmers took a feed from sophomore Skyelar Ettin (Princeton, NJ/Princeton) and deposited it for a 33-29 advantage. The Cougars responded with a basket and then a three-point bucket off the fingertips of junior Branly Cadet (Elizabeth, NJ/St. Patrick) to slip ahead 34-33.
 
The game remained even over the next four minutes before the Cougars put together a 13-2 run as senior Leigh Keenan (Bethlehem, PA/Northampton found Fuller numerous times underneath to surge ahead 47-37 with 6:40 remaining.
 
Al Matlock stopped the bleeding when he drained a three-point shot off a kick-out from Emmanuel Matlock. The rookie Matlock then found freshman Drew Grapstul (Bayonne, NJ/Hudson Catholic) under the basket to close the gap to 47-42. But four straight points by Kirey provided enough separation for Kean to ride out its sixth win of the season.
 
TCNJ plays its final game of the season at Rutgers University-Camden this Saturday, February 11.