Ewing, NJ... The College of New Jersey men's basketball team (13-3, 8-1 NJAC) defeated Rutgers Camden (3-13, 1-9 NJAC) by a final score of 98-88. Randall Walko (Somerville, NJ/Somerville) continued his strong sophomore season as he scored a team high 24 points. With the win the Lions are off to the best 16 game start since the 1997-98 season.

In the first half the Lions were trailing 24-22 with about ten minutes remaining, however raced out to the lead with an 18-2 run. Joe Montano (Eatontown, NJ/Red Bank Catholic) scored on a reverse lay up after receiving a nice feed from Elias Bermudez (Westwood, NJ/Westwood), and on the next possession Montano found Eric Murdock, Jr. (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater) from behind the arc and Murdock Jr. hit to make it 38-26 Lions. On the next time down the floor, Jordan Glover (Trenton, NJ/Lawrenceville) grabbed a strong offensive rebound and hit the put back to make it 40-26 Lions. They were locked in from behind the arc in the first half, as they went 10-19 from three point range.

The Lions held a 57-48 lead with 16:39 left in the second stanza, and extended the lead to 19 with a 10-0 run capped off by a three pointer from Walko. The Scarlet Raptors refused to let the Lions run away with the game however, and slowly chipped away at the lead and got it down to 87-84 with just under four minutes left to play. Walko was fouled after controlling an offensive rebound and hit both free throws, and Murdock Jr. nailed a three pointer on the next possession to put the game out of reach.

Walko scored 24 on 7-13 shooting from the floor, including 5-9 from the three point line and a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line, and added a team high 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Murdock Jr. scored 17 points on 6-9 shooting including 4-5 from downtown, and Ryan Jensen (Brielle, NJ/Manasquan) added 16 points on 5-8 shooting and seven rebounds coming off of the bench. Montano scored 13 points on 4-6 shooting coming off of the bench, and Niall Carpenter (Westampton, NJ/Westampton) added 12 points and six rebounds. Murdock Jr. kept his teammates involved as he tallied eight assists on the night. 

The Lions held a huge advantage on the glass, as they out rebounded the Scarlet Raptors by a margin of 44-28. The Lions scored 21 second chance points to the Scarlet Raptors 10, and also held a sizable edge on bench points by a 29-3 margin.

The Lions return to the court this Saturday, January 20th when they will face Kean University in Packer Hall at 1pm.