GALLOWAY, N.J. – The TCNJ women's basketball team made a statement on Wednesday night, doubling up Stockton in a 72-36 rout to hand the Ospreys their first NJAC loss in resounding fashion.
 
Nina Branchizio scored a game-high 10 points while seven other players netted between seven and nine markers for the Lions (6-4, 4-2), who made it three straight wins and two in a row on the road. TCNJ outscored the Ospreys, 17-4, in the first quarter and 22-5 in the second to open up a 30-point lead by halftime.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The game was tied only once, at 2-2 two minutes in, before the Lions assumed full control with a 13-0 run featuring 3-pointers by Natalie Kolb, Isabella Cafaro, and Arianna McCleod
• By the time Stockton stopped the bleeding, the home side hadn't scored in more than five minutes
• The second quarter was more of the same for the Lions, who got triples from Julia Setaro and Izzy Leazier on their first two possessions to go up 23-4 less than a minute into the frame
• Another sequence of back-to-back treys, this time by Leazier and Branchizio, pushed the lead out to 31-5 at the midway point of the second, and another long-range splash from Branchizio made it 39-9 for the last points of the half at the 3:01 mark
• TCNJ led by as many as 38 points in the second half, holding at least a 30-point advantage for all but 17 seconds of the fourth quarter

FOR THE FOES

• Stockton was a miserable 23.1 percent from the field (15-for-64), including 4-of-30 in the first half
• The Ospreys, who came in averaging only 3.5 3-pointers per game to rank 354^th in the country, made just one on 14 attempts
• Grace Speer led the hosts with nine points and six rebounds

STANDOUT LIONS

• The Lions were remarkably balanced, with Branchizio becoming the first and only player to reach double figures with a jumper with 1:53 remaining
• Kolb, Leazier, McCleod, and Setaro all finished with nine points, a season high for both Kolb and McCleod
• Grace Kowalski had eight points off the bench, and Fricker and Cafaro tallied seven each
• Kaitlyn Deiter had game highs in rebounds (9), assists (4), and blocks (3)
• Stockton ranks 23^rd in Division III in field-goal percentage defense (.313) and scoring defense (49.8 PPG), but the Lions blew both of those averages out of the water with a 42.6-percent shooting night (26-of-61) and 72 points
• TCNJ came in 7^th in the nation in 3-pointers per game (9.3) and did itself even better, making 12 of 24 from beyond the arc. Leazier was 3-for-3 from downtown and McCleod was 3-of-4.
• The Lions had 18 assists on 26 made field goals and turned it over just 11 times

NOTES

• TCNJ won its third straight against Stockton and is 11-2 in the last 13 meetings. The Lions' last 12 wins in the series have been by double digits
• Setaro passed Alex Gregorek '11 for 15^th on the program's all-time scoring list (1,046 points), and her lone 3-pointer moved her past Angelica Esposito '16 into 3^rd in school history with 159

UP NEXT

• The Lions head to Washington, D.C. next week for the Catholic Holiday Classic. They'll take on Marymount (Va.) on Monday (4 p.m.) and Eastern on Tuesday (1 p.m.) to wrap up the 2023 portion of their schedule