UNION, N.J. – The TCNJ men's basketball team kept its undefeated start to the 2021 season going on Saturday. The Lions topped Kean by a final tally of 99-77 to improve to 6-0 on the year. The 6-0 start matches the program's best since the NJAC Championship 1997-98 season.

A lightning-quick 21-7 second-half run put TCNJ in the driver's seat. The Cougars cut the lead to 49-38 one minute into the half, but the Lions raced out to a big 25-point lead in only six minutes.

Jason Larranaga began the run with a three-pointer. TCNJ attacked the rim and found high-efficient opportunities, as the next seven buckets were all scored from in the paint. The active TCNJ defense led to instant offense. Travis Jocelyn came up with a steal and found P.J. Ringel on the fast break who took it all the way to put the Lions ahead, 58-40.

Danny Bodine set up another close bucket from Jocelyn, then Ringel ignited another fast break with a steal. The senior point guard found Anthony DiCaro who scored the lay-up to push the lead to 62-42 with 15:52 left in the game.

The offense kept clicking, and David Rodriguez assisted a Bodine jumper that extended the lead to 25. After the Cougars ended their drought with a three-pointer, Bodine answered right back with a trifecta of his own. The big man's triple put the Lions ahead, 70-45, with 13:40 to play. Kean was unable to shrink the lead to less than 19 the rest of the way.

Jocelyn scored 23 points for the second game in a row to lead the Lions. He also grabbed eight rebounds and tallied five assists. The senior forward shot an efficient 8-of-11 from the floor and a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line.

Bodine was one point shy of Jocelyn with 22 on the afternoon. He shot an efficient 9-of-14 from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point range.

Ringel had another stat sheet-stuffing day with 12 points, eight assists, six rebounds, and three steals. The senior point guard now has 277 assists in his career which moves him into fifth place in TCNJ history. He passed both Tom Murphy and Greg Grant on the Lions' leaderboard this afternoon.

Larranaga scored 15 points on an efficient 5-of-8 shooting and added six boards. DiCaro finished the day with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Naysean Burch added a career-high nine points off of the bench.

The Lions were on fire, shooting a staggering 60.7% (37-of-61) from the field. TCNJ also went 12-of-26 (46.2%) from long distance.

TCNJ will return to action against William Paterson next weekend. Game one will be the Lions' senior day to honor Ringel, Jocelyn, and Brandon Slaybaugh on Feb. 26.