EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ women's basketball team celebrated Senior Night in style on Wednesday, clinching the NJAC regular-season title and home-court advantage for the conference tournament with a 75-45 rout of visiting Rutgers-Newark.
 
The Lions honored Isabella Cafaro, Kaitlyn Deiter, Carson Fontana, and Izzy Leazier before cruising to their fourth straight home win and wrapping up the regular season winners of eight of their last nine.

TCNJ will be the top seed in the NJAC Tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign. 
 
FOR THE RECORD

• The Lions closed out the regular season at 17-8 overall and 14-4 in the NJAC, while Newark finished 2-23 overall and 1-17 in league play

HOW IT HAPPENED

• TCNJ started the game with a bang, winning the opening tip and feeding ahead to Fontana for an uncontested lay-up, her first points since the 2021-22 season. She exited to a big ovation from the Packer Hall crowd
• Fontana's lineup was part of a 10-0 opening run that also included 3-pointers from Julia Setaro and Leazier
• The Scarlet Raiders got within 17-12 at the end of the first, but TCNJ blitzed them early to start the next period as well, scoring eight quick points in a span of just over 100 seconds
• Like the first quarter, it was a 10-0 run to begin the stanza, spurred on by five Setaro points
• Newark stopped the bleeding briefly but went scoreless over the next five-plus minutes, with Grace Kowalski and Katie Fricker knocking down 3-pointers as the Lions stretched the lead all the way out to 25 (39-14). Kowalski's second triple of the half made it 42-18 at the halftime break
• Setaro started the second half with a jumper, part of a 12-2 run over the first five minutes of the third that culminated in a Fricker corner 3 off a feed from Ella Van Dine to make it 54-20
• TCNJ took a 56-20 lead, its largest of the game, before the Scarlet Raiders put some window dressing on the final score by outscoring the Lions, 25-19, from that point on

FOR THE FOES

• Aliyah Sanchez collected a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds
• Samiyah Horton scored 12 points

STANDOUT LIONS

• Fricker paced the pride with 14 points and added five rebounds
• Setaro finished with 11 points, three assists, and four steals
• Branchizio and Kowalski netted 10 points apiece
• Natalie Kolb stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, seven rebounds, and five assists
• Deiter scored four points and matched Kolb with seven rebounds, plus three blocks
• Cafaro tallied six points and five rebounds

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ turned 24 Newark turnovers into 25 points on the other end
• The Lions shot only 36.6 percent for the night (26-of-71) but attempted 17 more shots than Newark and made 12 3-pointers to none for the Scarlet Raiders
• The Lions got out in transition to the tune of 15 fast-break points

NOTES

• Setaro moved past Sandy Sellers '86 for ninth on the program's all-time scoring list (1,262 points)

UP NEXT

• The Lions will host the winner of Saturday's No. 4 vs. No. 5 first-round game in an NJAC semifinal next Tuesday from Packer Hall