UNION, N.J. – The TCNJ women's basketball team took league-leading Kean right down to the wire in a thrilling NJAC clash on Wednesday night, ultimately coming up just short in a 57-52 decision.

The Lions (13-8, 8-6) led for all but a few seconds of the first half and rarely trailed by more than a possession all night. After Katie Fricker knocked down a 3-pointer to tie it at 46 with 5:34 to go, Kean went on a 6-0 run over the next 4:37 and held on to maintain its one-game lead atop the NJAC standings.

With the loss, TCNJ fell into a three-way tie for fourth place with Ramapo and William Paterson, the latter of which comes to Packer Hall on Saturday.

For the second time in as many games, Nina Branchizio opened the scoring with a 3-pointer. The Cougars (13-8, 11-3) responded with one of their own, but Julia Setaro capped a quick run of five unanswered points and the Lions controlled the rest of the opening quarter. Branchizio, Setaro, Emily Toy, and Kaitlyn Deiter each had two field goals in the first frame, and Deiter's buzzer-beating put-back gave TCNJ an 18-10 edge.

A transition triple from Branchizio stretched the spread into double figures (23-13) early in the second, but Kean rallied and ended the first half on an 11-0 run capped by a Shannon McCoy triple to go into the locker room with a 29-28 lead.

Kean threatened to pull away in the third, twice leading by as many as six points, but the Lions refused to let them separate and ended the stanza knotted at 41 after another Branchizio triple with 2:09 to play polished off the period's scoring.

The fourth quarter was tight, with neither side denting the scoreboard until more than two-and-a-half minutes had elapsed. Fricker scored the first five points of the quarter for TCNJ, which evened the score once but was never able to get over the hump, and the lengthy scoring drought after Fricker's tying 3-pointer proved decisive.

Izzy Leazier's corner 3 cut the Kean lead to 55-52 with 11.3 seconds to go, but Kean star Shannon McCoy knocked down both free throws at the other end to ice it.

McCoy finished with 26 points and added seven rebounds, while Macy Seaman posted a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds and Kayla Anderson added a dozen of her own.

Branchizio played all 40 minutes for the Lions, scoring a team-high 14 points on four 3-pointers and dishing out four assists. Deiter collected 10 points, while Setaro had eight and Izzy Leazier produced seven.

Fricker had a strong game with five points, a team-high six rebounds, and four assists, while Toy handed out four assists to go with four points.

TCNJ shot 45.8 percent from the field (22-of-48) but only shot two free throws – both misses – and turned it over 23 times leading to 21 Cougar points.

The Lions head back to Packer to take on the Pioneers at 1 p.m. on Saturday.