EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ women's basketball team did its best to overturn a big second-half deficit in Friday's NJAC championship game, but visiting New Jersey City had enough to hold off the Lions for a 65-52 victory inside Packer Hall.
 
Damaris Rodriguez scored 26 points to power the Gothic Knights to their third conference title in the last four seasons, two of which have come at the hands of the Lions.
 
FOR THE RECORD

• TCNJ saw its spectacular season come to an end with a record of 18-9 and its second NJAC title game appearance in four years
• New Jersey City improved to 19-8 and clinched the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament

HOW IT HAPPENED

• TCNJ threw the game's first punch, getting 3-pointers from Julia Setaro and Nina Branchizio to go up 6-0, all while holding the Gothic Knights scoreless for more than three minutes
• The Lions maintained the six-point margin at 10-4 after a midrange pull-up from Setaro, but NJCU began to assert itself from there with a 7-0 run to take its first lead
• The lead changed hands two more times in the first quarter, which ended with TCNJ on top 18-17
• With the teams tied at 20 following a 3-pointer from Grace Kowalski, NJCU took control with a 9-0 run that put the green and gold on top to stay and eventually grew to 15-2. The Gothic Knights led by as many as 13 and went into the locker room with a 37-26 advantage
• Trailing 42-26 after Rodriguez capped a 6-0 run, the Lions made their big move. Arianna McCleod knocked down a 3-pointer and drove the lane for a lay-in, and Branchizio's second triple of the night cut the margin to nine (43-34)
• Another trey, this one from Cafaro, brought TCNJ within 43-37, but Alaisha Mumford scored on a steal to ignite a 7-0 run and silence a raucous Packer crowd
• NJCU upped its lead to 60-41 with just over five minutes left, and TCNJ could get no closer than 11 (61-50), on a bucket inside from Cafaro with 2:11 to play, before the Gothic Knights salted it away

FOR THE FOES

• Rodriguez, the two-time NJAC Player of the Year, was 10-of-22 from the field and added four assists and three steals
• Tahirah Kelly went 6-for-7 in the first half en route to a 17-point night
• Mumford finished with nine points and eight rebounds, and Sarah Edmond hauled in a game-high 11 boards

STANDOUT LIONS

• Cafaro was 6-for-7 from the floor for a team-best 14 points to go with five rebounds
• Setaro joined her in double figures with 11, plus a team-high three steals
• McCleod had seven big points off the bench

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• NJCU's defense was suffocating, limiting the prolific TCNJ attack to 31.6 percent from the field (18-of-57)
• NJCU dominated in the paint (42-16) and scored 17 points off 16 TCNJ turnovers

NOTES

• Setaro passed Jen Byrne '20 and Jen Hutchinson '00 for fourth on the all-time scoring list with 1,297 career points. She also made her 199^th career 3-pointer, good for second in team history
• Izzy Leazier (644 career points, 347 rebounds, 189 assists); Cafaro (319 points, 187 rebounds); Kaitlyn Deiter (302 points, 364 rebounds, 72 blocks) wrapped up their stellar careers
• Natalie Kolb, a grad transfer from F&M, had six points in her TCNJ finale