Jersey City, NJ… Despite leading for over 32 minutes, The College of New Jersey (7-3, 4-1 NJAC) men's basketball team fell to New Jersey City University (8-1, 5-0 NJAC) 54-52 in a defensive struggle Saturday afternoon. The loss snaps a four game winning streak.

The Lions got off to a fast start as Eric Klacik (Basking Ridge, NJ / Ridge) drilled a three-pointer to open the scoring, spurring an 8-2 run. Klacik finished in double figures for the second time this year with 12 points.

Leading 14-10, Corey Stanford (Pittsburgh, PA / Penn Trafford) and Eric Murdock, Jr. (Bridgewater, NJ / Bridgewater) hit back-to-back triples. Then, after two successful Gothic Knight free-throws, Bobby Brackett (Lawrenceville, NJ / Lawrence) converted an and-one opportunity and went two for two from the line on the next possession to give TCNJ their largest lead of the half at 13.

Brackett finished with a double-double compiling 18 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Stanford scored nine points to go with his seven boards.

The Lions went into the break with a 30-24 advantage.

NJCU came out strong to start the second half, earning their first tie of the game at 34-34, when Chinwe Wosu gathered an offensive rebound and scored the put back lay-up. Several minutes later, the Gothic Knights would gather their first lead of the game at 41-40 on another Wosu basket.

Klacick drained another three with 4:42 remaining to give TCNJ what would be their final lead of the contest. NJCU tied the game at 50-50 with a jumper from Ata Robinson. That would be the game's final basket made from the field.

Sam Toney broke the tie with 53 seconds remaining, knocking down a pair from the charity stripe, and when Robinson missed the back end of a one-and-one the Lions had the ball, down three points with under 30 seconds remaining.

TCNJ had a game-tying three-point attempt blocked, and the Gothic Knights elected to foul rather than give the Lions another attempt. Brackett knocked down both shots, and the Lions sent Robinson to the line once again with just seven seconds remaining. After going one for two from the line again, TCNJ had one final shot to win the game, but the three-point attempt was off the mark, and the Lions fell just short.

TCNJ was out-shot 29.7% (19-64) to 28.6% (14-49).

The Lions are now off until the new year, when they travel to Western Connecticut State for a 7:00 pm tip on January 2, 2017.