Ewing, NJ …The College of New Jersey men's basketball team earned a 72-58 victory Montclair State University in its New Jersey Athletic Conference opener on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Lions (2-2) were in command from start to finish and played with great energy in front of an electric crowd in Packer Hall.
 
The loss was the first of the season for the Red Hawks as they dropped to 2-1 on the season.
 
Senior Jayson Johnson (Bordentown, NJ/Life Academy Center) put forth one of the best games of his career at TCNJ, leading the Lions with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Senior Skyelar Ettin (Princeton, NJ/Princeton) also had a great performance, scoring 20 points that included a number of clutch shots from long distance. Freshman Eric Murdock (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater) had an impressive debut on campus and finished with 18 points.
 
Sophomores Erick Loften-Harris (Union, NJ/Union) and Shaun Russell (Brooklyn, NY/Willingboro) led Montclair State with 16 and 15 points respectively. Loften-Harris was a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe.
 
The Lions played upbeat and confident right from the start. While they played aggressive, they took care of the basketball and turned it over just four times in the first half.
 
A Johnson layup brought crowd to its feet early to give TCNJ a 14-4 lead as MSU quickly called a timeout. They responded and slowly closed the gap over the next seven minutes. Two free throws by Loften-Harris cut the Lions' lead to 20-19 with 7:56 remaining in the period.
 
TCNJ answered back with eight straight points, punctuated by an Ettin three-pointer. Ettin hit another trey with 3:19 showing on the clock to make it a 35-25 game. A Red Hawk layup by Marcus Elmore drew the score to 36-29 at the half.
 
The Lions maintained their momentum after the break in large part due to the play of Johnson. He connected on his first five shots of the half, including a pair of three-point buckets. A Johnson layup with 10 minutes remaining put the Lions up 54-44. But the Red Hawks clawed their back into the contest.
 
Two free throws by Daniel Rodriguez (Burlington Twp, NJ/Northeast Prep) followed by a pair of Russell baskets made it a four-point game. After a TCNJ timeout, Murdock drove the lane and then the baseline for back-to-back scores to open the lead back to eight.
 
Montclair battled to keep its hopes alive, but Ettin came up clutch down the stretch. He dropped a pair of daggers from long distance in a 45-second span and then converted a traditional three-point play to take the wind out of the MSU sails. Johnson and Murdock hit their free throws in the waning moments to give the Lions a victory in their home opener.
 
Junior Bobby Brackett (Lawrence, NJ/Lawrence) finished with nine points and a game-high eight rebounds. Sophomore Alex Cirlincione (Oakhurst, NJ/Ocean) contributed with a team-high four assists.
 
TCNJ continues its NJAC schedule on Tuesday night when they visit Rutgers University-Camden for an 8 p.m. start. The Lions return home Wednesday, December 3 to take on Richard Stockton College at 6 p.m. in Packer Hall.