EWING, N.J. - The TCNJ women's basketball team opened its 2025-26 campaign at home with a game against Arcadia Saturday afternoon, falling 87-75 in a hard-fought battle with the Knights.
The opening frame of Saturday's contest belonged to sophomores
Maddie Bernhardt and
Amanda Baylock, with the duo combining to score the Lions' (0-1) first 15 points – eight for Bernhardt and seven for Baylock – to give TCNJ an early 15-11 advantage.
Katie Fricker and
Grace Kowalski added themselves to the box score at the free throw line, but it was Arcadia ending the quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 21-17 lead into the break.
Bernhardt stayed red hot in the second quarter, pouring in 11 of her career-high 22 points in the frame to singlehandedly keep the Lions in the game before layups by
Olivia Magee and
Izzy Augustine sent proceedings into halftime with the score tied at 34.
The sides traded buckets to begin the second half, with a perfect visit to the stripe from Fricker knotting things once again at 43 before an 8-0 burst gave the visitors their largest lead of the night to that point. The Knights' advantage would grow all the way to 10 in the frame – thanks in large part to the play of Delaney Bell and Anastasia Bowman – with just over two minutes to go, but this time it was Baylock's turn to go on a personal 5-0 run to cut the deficit in half at 56-51.
Arcadia's Bowman would cap off her impressive quarter with another layup in the final 15 seconds, giving the Knights a 58-51 lead with 10 minutes to go.
TCNJ threw the first punch in Saturday's fourth, using a Fricker triple and tough layup from Augustine – the first of the freshman's remarkable 17 points in the frame – to make it a four-point game at 60-56 with 8:16 on the clock, but that is as close as the Lions would get in the 87-75 loss.
STANDOUT LIONS
- Bernhardt (22), Baylock (19) and Augustine (19) all racked up career highs in scoring in TCNJ's season opener.
- Bernhardt also registered career-best marks in 3-pointers made (6), rebounds (6) and assists (2) in a breakout game for the sophomore.
- Augustine's 19 points – 17 of which were scored in the fourth – came in just 20 minutes in the first collegiate game of her career.
- Myah Hourigan-Hutton paced the team in assists (3) while sharing the team-lead in rebounds with Bernhardt.
FOR THE FOES
- Arcadia's Bell was unstoppable in the road win, scorching TCNJ for 33 points on 13-20 shooting while also registering a double-double with a game-high 12 rebounds.
- Joining the senior in double figures was Taylor Koenig (19), Bowman (12) and Hanna Rhoades (11). Rhoades added a game-high six assists.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions shot 37.5% (27-72) from the field and 32.3% (10-31) from 3-point territory.
- The Knights converted on 56.9% (29-51) of its shots, including 56.3% (9-16) from deep.
- Arcadia went 20-26 at the charity stripe while TCNJ was 11-15.
- The Lions converted 16 Knight turnovers into 13 points on the other end.
NOTES
- Arcadia's win is its first in five tries in its series against TCNJ.
UP NEXT
- The Lions are on the road Friday, November 14 to take on 11th-ranked Trinity, with tipoff scheduled for 5 p.m.
