Galloway, NJ… The College of New Jersey women's basketball team overcame a 13-point deficit in the second half as the Lions rallied for a big 66-63 victory at Richard Stockton College on Wednesday.
 
TCNJ fell behind 55-42 with 10:29 left in the game before embarking on an impressive 16-0 run that catapulted them into the lead. Once the Lions grabbed the lead, they hit two key free throws in the final seconds to secure the win. The win put TCNJ at 7-3 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and 13-6 overall, while the Ospreys fell to 4-6 in league play and 9-8 overall.
 
The hosts led 39-32 at the half and slowly built that advantage up to 55-42.  A 3-pointer by Tiffany DeTulio (Colts Neck, NJ/Colts Neck) ignited the run and she immediately followed that up with another bucket closing the gap to single digits.
 
A bucket by Liz West (Monmouth Beach, NJ/Shore Regional) and a trey by Colleen Duffy (Spotswood, NJ/Spotswood) closed the margin to 55-52, but the Lions kept coming as Kylie O'Donnell (Magnolia, NJ/Sterling) connected from the floor to make it a one-point game.
 
West put TCNJ in front at 56-55 with 6:39 remaining and just over a minute later Kelly Roddy (Belmar, NJ/St. Rose) made a bucket pushing the difference to 58-58.
 
The Ospreys tied the game with a 3-pointer, but DeTulio countered with a trey of her own quickly regaining TCNJ's lead. Richard Stockton closed to within a point, but DeTulio again struck from long range with 58 seconds left putting the guests in front 64-60.
 
The Ospreys got to 64-63 with 49 seconds left, but two key free throws by O'Donnell with two seconds left iced the win.
 
The opening half of the game was tight with three ties in the opening five minutes before the Ospreys went on an 11-3 run to take a 21-13 lead.
 
Roddy sparked a TCNJ run that pulled them to within one, knocking down a 3-pointer and then converting two other field goals to make it a one-point game at 21-20.
 
After Richard Stockton added two points to its lead, the Lions forged their way back in front thanks to a pair of free throws by O'Donnell and a field goal from Jessica Goldbach (Edison, NJ/J.P. Stevens).
 
TCNJ later led 27-25, but the Ospreys used a late 14-2 run to lead 39-29, but Goldbach hit from behind the 3-point arc at the buzzer to give the Lions a boost and trim the deficit to seven points.
 
Roddy paced a parade of four TCNJ players to score in double figures with 15 points, while Goldbach netted 13. DeTulio tacked on 11 points and O'Donnell had 10.
 
The Lions had plenty of success from behind the 3-point arc knocking down 11-of-23 for a solid 47.8 percentage.

TCNJ  continues conference play on Saturday, January 26 hosting Ramapo College at 1 p.m. in Packer Hall.