UNION, N.J. – The TCNJ men's basketball team saw a late lead slip away in a 68-66 NJAC setback at Kean on Wednesday night.
 
The Lions led by 14 with 9:18 to go and by nine with 5:47 left but went scoreless over the final 3:26 as the Cougars eked out another barn-burner between the league rivals. The result ended a five-game winning streak for TCNJ (7-2, 3-1), which also suffered its first league loss.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Cougars came out firing, scoring the game's first nine points and forcing an early timeout from TCNJ
• Kean spent a decent chunk of the first half leading by between nine and 11 points until the Lions mounted a rally late in the period, getting five straight points from Matthew Okorie and getting within 31-30 on Jack Vreeswyk's 3-pointer with a few seconds left before the buzzer
• The visitors began to take over early in the second half. Leading 40-39, TCNJ got 3-pointers from Okorie and two from James Beckwith on three straight possessions, opening up a double-digit lead in the span of a little over a minute
• Matthew Solomon's bucket eventually stretched the margin out to 56-42 with 9:18 to go, but the Cougars responded with 11 in a row over a stretch of two-plus minutes to close within 56-53 at the 6:31 mark
• Still, the Lions looked poised to pull away for good after back-to-back treys from Okorie and Jason Larranaga, the latter putting the blue and gold on top by nine (62-53) with 5:47 on the clock
• Solomon's bucket with 3:26 left made it 66-60 in favor of the Lions, but they never scored again, and Kean trimmed the deficit down to two (66-64) on a 3-pointer with 1:56 to play
• Trailing by one, Brandon Upshaw managed to bury a one-legged runner from just inside the 3-point line to give Kean a 67-66 lead with 19.2 seconds to go
• After TCNJ stepped out of bounds on the next possession, D.J. Alicea split a pair of free throws with 7.4 ticks showing, and the Lions had one last chance. Okorie dribbled up the court and passed to Larranaga at the top of the key, but the fifth-year wing had to avoid a flying close-out from a Kean defender and his double-clutch look at a game-winner came up well short

FOR THE FOES

• Upshaw led all scorers with 22 points and Alicea chipped in 17
• Mario Gunn pulled down 13 rebounds to lead a 45-30 discrepancy on the glass for Kean, which included 14 offensive boards

STANDOUT LIONS

• Solomon was 8-for-12 from the floor en route to a 16-point, 6-rebound night
• Vreeswyk finished 6-for-11 with three 3-pointers to post 15 points
• Beckwith and Okorie each tallied 11 points
• David Alexandre handed out five assists to help TCNJ dish out 20 for the night, to only 10 turnovers

NOTES

• The last four meetings between the teams have been nail-biters, two decided by two points and the other two by four, including last year's overtime win for the Lions in the NJAC quarterfinals
• Vreeswyk has scored in double figures four times this season and had his fifth game with at least two 3-pointers

UP NEXT

• TCNJ hosts Montclair State on Saturday