NEWARK, N.J. – A frigid second-half shooting performance left the TCNJ men's basketball team with a 68-48 loss at Rutgers-Newark in Wednesday's regular-season finale.

The result was meaningless for the Lions' postseason standing, as TCNJ has been locked into the No. 5 seed in the NJAC Tournament for the last two weeks of the campaign. The Lions will head to fourth-seeded Kean for a first-round clash on Saturday night.

TCNJ (9-16, 8-10) led by double-digits late in the first half and held a five-point lead at the break but managed just four field goals after intermission (4-for-20). Anthony DiCaro and Pat Higgins scored nine points apiece for the Lions, with Danny Bodine adding eight points and seven rebounds. Jim Clemente finished with six points and six boards.

The first half was a tug-of-war until Trevor Covey's 3-pointer fueled an 11-2 run that also featured triples by DiCaro and Higgins, who put the visitors on top by a 25-15 count with 6:33 to play in the period. It was still a 10-point lead (29-19) after two DiCaro free throws, but the Scarlet Raiders responded with seven straight points and got within five (34-29) at halftime.

Higgins put TCNJ up six (37-31) with a floater in the paint before the Lions were held scoreless for nearly six minutes as Rutgers-Newark pulled into the lead. It was 41-40 Scarlet Raiders after Matthew Solomon finished inside on a feed from DiCaro, but Levi Holton's fast-break dunk capped a 10-0 spurt and the Lions never recovered.

Tyrone Bowens led all scorers with 20 points for the Scarlet Raiders, who got 17 from Holton and 14 from Jordan Salisbury.

Bodine had three blocks on the night, bringing him within one of Jimmy Glover's single-season program record of 50 from the 1987-88 campaign.

TCNJ opens its playoff journey at Kean, which swept the regular-season series from the Lions.