EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ women's basketball team rolled to a 90-61 rout of visiting William Paterson on Saturday afternoon, leading wire to wire in posting its second-highest scoring output of the season.
 
Katie Fricker scored a career-high 21 points to lead a relentless offensive effort that resulted in the Lions scoring at least 20 points in all four quarters. Nina Branchizio and Julia Setaro netted 17 points apiece and Natalie Kolb chipped in a season-high 14.

THE RECORDS

• TCNJ improves to 8-6 overall and 5-2 in the NJAC
• William Paterson falls to 4-10 overall and 2-6 in the NJAC

 HOW IT HAPPENED

• TCNJ attacked the basket from the outset, getting layups from four different players in the first two-plus minutes and forcing an early WPU timeout. By the time Branchizio made back-to-back triples – both on kick-outs from Arianna McCleod and the second one a bank – the Lions had made six of their first seven shots and led 14-5
• The home side went a bit cold for the rest of the frame, but heated up again bridging the start of the second with an 11-0 spurt featuring two Setaro triples and a three-point play that left them in front 29-18
• Fricker drilled a trey of her own as TCNJ continued to fire away, leading by as many as 17 (41-24) on two Branchizio free throws with 3:35 to go before half. The Pioneers chipped away slightly over the rest of the period but still found themselves in a 46-33 hole at intermission
• TCNJ continued to maintain a double-digit surplus in the second half, shooting 8-for-12 from the floor in the third quarter and 18-for-30 (60.0) after intermission overall, and a late 13-0 run ballooned the lead as large as 31 (90-59)

FOR THE FOES

• Brianna Smith was on fire in the first half, pouring in 19 of her game-high 27 points on 7-of-10 shooting
• Renee Wells was the only other Pioneer in double digits with 11

STANDOUT LIONS

• Fricker easily outpaced her previous career high of 13, going 9-of-14 from the floor and grabbing eight rebounds to go with three steals
• Branchizio made all three of her 3-pointers in an 11-point first half and finished 5-for-6 on the day, including 4-for-5 from downtown
• Setaro was 6-of-10 overall and made four triples
• Kolb reset her TCNJ scoring high for the second game in a row alongside eight rebounds
• Olivia Magee gave the Lions a big lift in four first-half minutes, scoring twice inside and grabbing a rebound
• McCleod was a terrific distributor off the bench, handing out a career-high seven assists
• TCNJ shot 50.7 percent overall (36-for-71) and 10-of-27 from 3-point land

NOTES

• TCNJ has won 9 of its last 10 overall in the series and extended its home winning streak over the Pioneers to nine
• The Lions were all over the offensive glass, piling up nine offensive rebounds in the first quarter and 14 in the first half alone. TCNJ nearly doubled WPU's shot attempts in the first half (41-22), corralling an offensive board on 14 of their 23 misses. The Lions finished with a 41-24 edge on the glass and 14 second-chance points to just two for WPU
• TCNJ's massive rebounding advantage counteracted an efficient shooting effort from WPU, which was well over 50 percent for much of the second half before going cold and ending at 47.1 percent overall
• The Lions racked up 20 assists to just 12 turnovers, while forcing 17 miscues from the Pioneers

UP NEXT

• The Lions head to Rutgers-Newark for a 1 p.m. Wednesday matinee