MONTCLAIR, N.J. – Danny Bodine and
Jim Clemente each came a rebound away from a double-double, but a strong Montclair State start to the second half propelled the Red Hawks to a 71-53 victory over the TCNJ men's basketball team on Saturday afternoon.
The Lions played a fairly even first half with Montclair State, but the first 10 minutes of the second half proved to be the difference. The score at halftime was a 36-30 MSU lead, with both teams shooting right around 40 percent from the field.
Bodine had a dunk with 9:31 left in the first half that cut the MSU lead to 20-13, but the Red Hawks followed with a three pointer and a layup to expand its lead to 12 less than a minute later.
TCNJ chipped away at that deficit, scoring the next seven points.
Anthony DiCaro and
Jacob Hopping scored on consecutive possessions to make it 25-17, and
Jason Larranaga capped the run with a three pointer to make it 25-20 with 6:04 left. DiCaro had six points and seven rebounds. Hopping had nine points and five rebounds.
Naysean Burch hit a three to make it 29-25 MSU with 3:45 left, and Clemente hit a free throw in the final minute to keep the deficit at two possessions. Burch had seven points, four rebounds and four assists.
Bodine finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, narrowly missing his third double-double of the season. He also had a nine-point, 10-rebound effort in November. Clemente's 11 points and nine rebounds saw him narrowly miss his first double-double. He's had three double-digit rebounding games this season, but he finished with eight and nine points in two of those games.
In the second half, TCNJ actually shot better from the field than Montclair, but the Red Hawks made seven three pointers to TCNJ's one. The lead ballooned from the six-point halftime spread to 56-36 with 9:44 left, and it resulted in Montclair's largest lead of the day, 71-42, with 5:27 remaining.
TCNJ did not let up, though, even as a winning result drifted further from its reach. The Lions held Montclair scoreless for the final 6:10 of play, finishing the game on an 11-0 run.
TCNJ returns home to face Rutgers-Camden on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
