EWING N.J. – The TCNJ men's basketball team used a 16-2 run in the middle of the second half to defeat William Paterson, 70-63, on Saturday afternoon at Packer Hall.
Jacob Hopping scored 21 points to lead the Lions, and he was integral to that crucial stretch in the second half.
The Lions carried a 30-26 lead into the second half, and the score was tied at 34 with 15:24 to play when Hopping asserted himself. He scored the next five points, hitting a jumper and a three pointer on back-to-back possessions to make it 39-34.
Anthony DiCaro followed with a bucket to extend the lead to seven, but the Pioneers came back with five straight to cut the lead to 41-39. DiCaro finished with 12 points, six rebounds and six assists.
After a WPU miss from three-point range that would have given the Pioneers the lead, Hopping hit another three pointer and a layup on consecutive possessions to again push the lead to seven points. Jadon Cepeda scored for the Pioneers to make it 46-41 TCNJ, and those were the final WPU points for nearly five minutes.
In that span, TCNJ scored 11 straight points. Hopping had five of those 11 points, including a three-point play.
Danny Bodine,
Thomas Menyhert and
Matthew Okorie all scored on the run, as well. Okorie's jumper in the paint gave the Lions a 57-41 lead with 6:57 left in regulation.
William Paterson made a late push, cutting the deficit back to the two-possession range in the final 2:25. TCNJ hit its free throws down the stretch, though, making 7-of-8 in the final two minutes. Cepeda scored to cut the TCNJ lead to 68-63 with just 16 seconds left, but
Jason Larranaga buried a pair of free throws to finish the scoring.
TCNJ's bench outscored WPU's, 36-14. Hopping's 21 contributed heavily to that total, but Okorie also added 11 points in 19 minutes off the bench. Both players hit career highs with their scoring outputs on Saturday.
With the victory, head coach
Matt Goldsmith picked up his 99
th career win. He will go for No. 100 when the Lions travel to Christopher Newport on Monday at 3 p.m.
