GALLOWAY, N.J. – The road warriors picked off one last road kill – and picked up some shiny new hardware in the process.
 
The TCNJ men's basketball team rode a scorching shooting start to a 75-62 victory at Stockton in Saturday's NJAC championship, staving off a second-half charge from the hosts to claim their second conference crown in the last four years. The Lions had a 15-point lead whittled all the way down to two, but never let the Ospreys pull even and turned up the intensity on defense to add another trophy to the one they captured in 2020.
 
The fifth-seeded Lions became the first team seeded below No. 2 to win the NJAC championship, and consequently the first in the history of the conference tournament to pull off three consecutive road wins. Like in 2020, TCNJ earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will discover its first-round matchup and destination during the NCAA Selection Show on Monday afternoon.
 
FOR THE RECORD

• The Lions improved to 20-8 overall, reaching 20 wins for just the second time since 1998
• Stockton fell to 17-10 and is unlikely to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The teams alternated a trio of 3-pointers in a series of early lead changes before Matthew Solomon and Nick Koch scored on back-to-back inside buckets. After Matthew Okorie finished a lay-in on a bullet pass from Koch, TCNJ had grabbed an 11-6 lead and forced a Stockton timeout
• Jason Larranaga pulled the trigger on a deep triple and Okorie drove for a bucket to extend the run to 11-0 and the advantage to 16-6 before the Ospreys ended a drought with a 3 of their own
• Continuing the blazing start, Okorie and Larranaga connected on consecutive treys to grab a 22-9 lead seven minutes in
• Stockton scored seven in a row to get within six, but David Alexandre buried a step-back 3-pointer to key an answering 8-0 spurt – capped by a Koch 3 – to open up a 14-point margin at 30-16
• DJ Campbell began to catch fire for Stockton, pulling the hosts to within 33-26, but back came TCNJ again as Koch fed Solomon for a lay-in and James Beckwith scored eight straight – with a pair of 3s – to open up a 43-26 lead at the 3-minute mark of the first half
•  The Ospreys made a late push, using a Campbell-led 9-0 run to cut the margin to single digits (45-37) at halftime
• TCNJ started the second half much like the first, getting treys from Okorie and Beckwith and a transition take from Koch to bring the lead right back to 15 at 53-38. After another 6-0 mini-run from Stockton, Beckwith quieted the crowd with a right-wing 3 to push the lead back out to double digits (56-44)
• The see-saw continued, the Lions going back up 15 (61-46) before Stockton's 11-0 run clipped the advantage to 61-57 with 10:20 to go
• TCNJ got five consecutive stops to keep the Ospreys at bay but was unable to score itself, and Campbell's free throws made it a two-point game (61-59) with 6:43 to play
• Koch ended a nearly seven-minute scoreless drought with a free throw, and Okorie scored plus the foul on a back-door pass from Solomon to give the Lions some breathing room at 65-59 with 5:15 left
• After a Stockton 3, Koch drove the lane and made a circus shot through contact for a massive bucket and a 67-62 lead with 2:49 remaining
• Exceptional ball movement led to an Okorie lay-up from Koch, and Koch followed a Stockton turnover with two free throws to make it 71-62 with just 1:20 to go. After another stop, Koch knocked down two more with 1:02 remaining, and the Ospreys' fate was all but sealed

FOR THE FOES

• Campbell led all scorers with 23 points and EJ Matthews-Spratley added 13

STANDOUT LIONS

• Koch was 6-for-11 from the field and finished with a team-high 20 points, also handing out seven assists
• Okorie turned in yeoman's work with 19 points and nine boards
• Beckwith went 5-for-6 from 3 en route to a 17-point night
• Larranaga finished with eight points, and Solomon had six points and nine rebounds to go with three steals

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ finished 12-of-21 from 3-point range and shot 46.6 percent overall (27-of-58). The Lions started out 9-of-11 from 3
• The Lions' defense was elite, holding Stockton to 31.3 percent from the field (20-for-64) and forcing nine consecutive misses to start the second half

NOTES

• Stockton has played in five consecutive NJAC title games, but is just 1-4
• TCNJ beat the Ospreys twice at the Sports Center this season

UP NEXT

• The Lions await the NCAA Selection Show, set to air Monday at 1 p.m. on NCAA.com. They will play a first-round game on Friday, March 1