Ewing, NJ... The College of New Jersey men's basketball team was defeated in the New Jersey Athletic Conference semifinals on Wednesday night by William Paterson University by a final score of 95-86. 

Right off of the tip, Niall Carpenter (Westampton, NJ/Westampton) tracked down the ball and took it to the cup. After that, the Pioneers jumped out to an 8-2 lead until the Lions countered with a 13-1 run. Liam Byrne (Middletown, NJ/Red Bank Catholic) knocked down a three pointer after a nice feed from Eric Murdock, Jr. (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater). On the next trip down the floor, Randall Walko (Somerville, NJ/Somerville) scored on a strong take to the rim to give the Lions a 13-10 lead.

Joe Montano (Eatontown, NJ/Red Bank Catholic) knocked down back to back three pointers, with the latter giving the Lions a 31-21 lead with 5:25 to play in the opening half. Mike Walley (Yardley, PA/Notre Dame) hit a three pointer to push the Lions lead to 37-26 with about three minutes left in the half. Jordan Glover (Trenton, NJ/Lawrence) hit from in close after a nice dish from Walko to make it 39-28 Lions. Walley sank another from deep after taking a nice pass from Montano to put the Lions up 42-29. After the Pioneers hit a bucket with six seconds left, Walko took the inbounds pass and launched a half-court shot that went down to beat the buzzer and put the Lions up 45-36 heading into halftime.

In the second half, Byrne continued to be a factor, as he knocked down a three pointer, then scored on an aggressive drive to put the Lions up 52-48. Murdock Jr. kicked it out to Glover who hit the triple to make it 59-52 with over 14 minutes to play, however the Pioneers went on a 13-2 run to notch the game up at 65-65 with 10:30 to play. Domenic Mignone hit a three for the Pioneers to put them up 72-67 with just over eight minutes to play, then Carpenter hit a contested lefty lay up to make it a three point game. Richy Espinal scored a lay up to put the Pioneers up 78-72, then on the next possession Dapo Badmos made a lay in to put the Pioneers up 80-72. Murdock Jr converted from in close to cut it to 80-74, however on the other end George Sapp hit to make it 82-74. The Lions would not go away however, as Carpenter drained a three ball with 2:09 remaining to cut it to 82-77. The rest of the way, the Pioneers hit the free throws to hold onto the win. 

Walko led the Lions with 20 points and nine rebounds. Carpenter tallied 18 points and four rebounds, while Byrne scored 13 points off of the bench on 4-4 from the floor including a perfect 3-3 from behind the arc. Glover scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds, and Murdock Jr. dished out nine assists and added seven rebounds. Walley scored nine points coming off of the bench on 3-4 shooting from three point range. 

The Lions, as they have all year long shot the three ball well as they went 14-33 (42.4%) from downtown. The Pioneers held the advantage in close, as they out rebounded the Lions 44-33, and outscored them 40-28 in the paint. 

The Pioneers advance to the NJAC Championship where they will face Ramapo College on Saturday, February 24th at 3:00pm.

The Lions 19 wins is the highest total since the 1997-98 season, and for the third year in a row under head coach Matt Goldsmith increased their win total from the prior year.