Glassboro, NJ… When The College of New Jersey women's basketball team opens play in the upcoming New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament, they will be doing so on its home floor. The Lions clinched that home game by virtue of a 75-46 victory at Rowan University on Wednesday.
 
While the team knows it will be opening the tournament at home, the Lions are still jostling for playoff positioning with two conference games remaining. TCNJ (16-7 overall) is tied for second place with William Paterson University as both teams are 10-4, trailing undefeated Montclair State University (15-0). Wednesday's win over the Profs leapfrogged them past Ramapo College (9-5), while fell 63-43 at Rutgers-Newark (9-6).
 
The top six teams in the conference qualify for the tournament with the top two seeds earning byes in the opening round. Teams placing third and fourth will host opening-round games on Saturday, February 16 against the fifth and sixth place teams.
 
Junior Jessica Goldbach (Edison, NJ/John P. Stevens) paced a deep TCNJ offense finishing with a career-high 18 points. Junior Kelly Roddy (Belmar, NJ/St. Rose) added 12 points and sophomore Kelly Coughlin (Trumbull, CT/Trumbull) was the third Lion to reach double figures with 10. Sophomore Kylie O'Donnell (Magnolia, NJ/Sterling) chipped in with a balanced effort with eight points, six rebounds, and six assists.
 
In all, TCNJ had 11 players break into the scoring column as the team scored a season-high 75 points.
 
The Lions started to pull away in the closing minutes of the first half finishing on an 11-0 run saw the visitors go into the half with a 32-23 lead. TCNJ's defense came up big during that run holding the Profs scoreless for the final 2:25 and forced three turnovers on Rowan's final five possessions. Junior Colleen Duffy (Spotswood, NJ/Spotswood) played a big part of that run scoring five points, including a bucket with 13 seconds left in the half.
 
That run carried over into the second half with the Lions continuing to build their lead. After the Profs scored the opening field goal of the period, TCNJ scored 15 of the next 17 points to push its lead to 47-27.
 
Biggest lead came in the final minutes when freshman Michelle Johnston (Freehold, NJ/Freehold Twp.) sank a 3-pointer making the difference 31 points at 75-44,
 
The loss dropped Rowan to 6-18 overall and 1-13 in the conference.
 
The Lions play their final home game of the regular season on Saturday, February 9 hosting New Jersey City University at 1 p.m.