EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ men's basketball team made a spirited rally in the early stages of the second half of Wednesday night's regular-season finale against Rutgers-Newark, but a big early hole proved too much to overcome in a 68-52 NJAC setback.

The Lions (9-13, 6-12) were already locked into the No. 8 seed in the NJAC tournament and will meet No. 9 Ramapo in a first-round playoff matchup back in Packer on Saturday.

TCNJ honored its lone senior, David Rodriguez, in a pregame Senior Night ceremony. Rodriguez proceeded to give the Lions eight active minutes during which he snared two rebounds, drew a foul, and dished out a nice assist on a back-door feed.

Jason Larranaga paced the pride with 16 points, while Anthony DiCaro netted 12 to go with five rebounds and three assists.

The Lions had trouble getting going against a tenacious Newark defense, misfiring on 19 of their first 22 shots and going over eight minutes with scoring before falling into a 31-8 hole late in the first half. They showed signs of life in the closing minutes, going on a 6-0 run as DiCaro set up Justin Carbone for a bucket and drove in for a lefty lay-in before Jacob Hopping finished a challenged shot at the rim. Quincy Rutherford's floater made it 33-14 in favor of Newark at the half, at which point TCNJ was just 6-of-27 from the field and 1-of-13 from 3-point distance.

TCNJ came out re-energized from the locker room and quickly chipped away at the sizeable margin, getting back-to-back triples from Larranaga and DiCaro to trim the Scarlet Raiders advantage to 37-24 with 16:23 remaining.

DiCaro's high-arcing floater after a stingy defensive stop cut further into the spread and, after an exchange of baskets, Larranaga grabbed an offensive rebound and sank two free throws to make it a single-digit game (39-30) for the first time since the 16:15 mark of the first half.

The lead stayed at nine until the 11-minute mark, when Rutherford connected from long range to go back ahead by double digits at 45-33. The Lions were never able to get the deficit to single figures again.

Abe Kromah led all scorers with 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Scarlet Raiders, who got 15 points from Rutherford.