EWING, N.J. –  Behind a career night from Jack Vreeswyk, the TCNJ men's basketball team cruised into the championship of the Greg Grant Tip-off Tournament with an 84-54 rout of St. Joseph's Brooklyn on Friday night inside Packer Hall.
 
Vreeswyk scored 15 of his career-high 20 points in a sizzling first-half display in which he buried five 3-pointers, taking over after Jason Larranaga's early barrage spurred the hosts to an early 14-0 lead after just five minutes of action. TCNJ never looked back from there, utilizing its long-range prowess and significant size advantage to handle the visiting Bears.
 
The Lions led for all but 28 seconds of the contest in advancing to the final of their tip-off showcase for the third straight season.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The first half was marked by scorching shooting streaks, one apiece by Larranaga and Vreeswyk to counteract a 19-point outburst from the Bears' Jonathan Reno
• Larranaga connected on back-to-back triples and a driving layup in the first three-plus minutes, then Matthew Solomon found Matthew Okorie inside and put back his own miss to open up a quick 14-0 lead before SJBK finally dented the scoreboard at the 14:26 mark
• With TCNJ leading 18-6 after a baseline pull-up from Anthony Milligan, Vreeswyk embarked on the best stretch of his career, banging home four 3-pointers in a span of just over two minutes. In the blink of an eye, the Lions' lead swelled to 30-10 with 9:01 left in the half
• Vreeskwyk added one more for good measure in the opening half, giving himself a career-high 15 points in just over nine minutes of action. His fifth trey of the stanza made it 39-20, and the margin stayed right there at intermission as TCNJ went into the break with a 44-25 advantage
• Vreeswyk picked up right where he left off in the second half, splashing a deep straight-on 3 and then picking the pocket of an SJBK player and rocking the rim with a one-handed jam to make it 59-39 at the 11:20 mark
• The margin remained between 17 and 22 points until the last five minutes, when the TCNJ reserved spearheaded a 13-0 run over a span of about four-and-a-half minutes. Anthony Milligan hit a 3-pointer during that stretch, which also included the first career baskets for rookies Khalid Bakare and Chris Santner as well as sophomore Andrew Kaminski

FOR THE FOES

• Reno was unconscious in the first half, making five 3-pointers to try to keep pace with Vreeswyk and Larranaga. He finished with a game-high 34 points on 8-of-14 shooting from 3-point range
• The rest of Reno's teammates struggled, going a combined 6-for-38 from the floor and 2-of-16 from distance
• Alex Macheras grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds

STANDOUT LIONS

• Vreeskwyk came into Friday's game with 28 career points and six career 3-pointers. He matched the five triples he made in his first three seasons in the first half alone, and the 20 points for the night were more than he had scored in an entire season
• Larranaga racked up 18 points on a 6-for-9 night from the floor, also grabbing five rebounds
• Solomon finished 7-of-11 from the field en route to a 14-point, 8-rebound effort
• Milligan paired seven points with five boards, while Okorie had seven points and seven caroms. Beckwith was just 2-of-13 from the field but contributed five rebounds and five assists

NOTES

• The Lions shared the ball exceptionally well, racking up 18 assists to just nine turnovers. They had 14 assists in the first half alone, five of which came out of the hands of Beckwith, who had two of them on identical inbounds lobs for layups by Solomon
• TCNJ outrebounded the undersized Bears, 54-34, and had 22 second-chance points from their 16 offensive boards. They dominated the paint to the tune of a 40-8 scoring advantage

UP NEXT

• The Lions will take on the winner of the Hunter/Wells nightcap in Saturday's championship game at 5 p.m.