EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ men's basketball team celebrated Senior Day with a big NJAC victory on Saturday, shaking off a slow start and pulling away from New Jersey City in the second half for a 73-62 victory inside Packer Hall on Saturday.
 
Nick Koch paced the pride with 20 points and six assists at the head of an all-senior starting five alongside regular starters Matthew Solomon and Jonathan Okocha and veteran honorees Andrew Kaminski and Anthony Milligan.
 
Despite going scoreless for more than five minutes to start the game and spotting the visitors a 9-0 lead, the Lions (11-5, 6-3) gradually and convincingly found their way and left behind a Gothic Knights squad that came in all alone in second place in the NJAC. After the first round of conference play, TCNJ sits in a three-way tie for third at 6-3, one game behind NJCU and three back of unbeaten Montclair State.
 
Perhaps afflicted with some Senior Day butterflies, the Lions suffered through a five-minute scoring drought after the opening tip and found themselves in an early 9-0 hole. It didn't take the blue and gold long to dig out.
 
After misfiring on its first seven attempts from the field, TCNJ finally got on the board on a corner 3 from Khalid Bakare, and back-to-back driving baskets from Koch quickly trimmed the deficit to two at 9-7.
 
NJCU made another attempt to create distance, reeling off eight unanswered to restore its largest lead of the afternoon at 19-10, but it was all Lions from there. Koch hit Mason Mangione with a quick pass for a corner 3-pointer to kick off an extended 20-3 spurt over the next six-plus minutes, and Mangione's rookie counterpart Lucas Dipasupil took it from there. The first-year guard drilled a deep 3-pointer and flew in for a put-back on the next trip down to make it 21-20, and Okocha gave TCNJ its first lead of the ballgame at 23-22 with a right-wing triple at the 6:11 mark.
 
Dipasupil and Milligan then traded 3-pointers, each assisted by the other, to stake the Lions to a 30-22 advantage, capping a 10-0 stretch that gave the home side the breathing room it needed to take a 32-27 edge into halftime.
 
Solomon was active in the early part of the second stanza, slamming home a Koch bounce pass on a pick-and-roll and finding Okocha for an open 3 to extend the margin to 42-34.
 
TCNJ's first double-digit lead came at the 12:22 mark, when Daniel Yarus grabbed an offensive rebound and Solomon sent a skip pass to Mangione for a triple and a 49-39 upper hand. The momentum continued apace, as Yarus got behind the defense and fed Solomon for a transition lay-up before Dipasupil picked a Gothic Knights guard's pocket and raced in for a lay-in of his own to force NJCU into a timeout and a 53-39 deficit.
 
TCNJ kept the Gothic Knights at bay down the stretch, icing it with a Yarus trey that made it 64-51 with 5:18 to go and a three-point play when Koch banked in a high-arcing lefty floater to go up 67-53 with 3:48 remaining.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ shot 42.6 percent from the field (26-for-61), 36.4 percent from 3-point range (12-for-33), and 81.8 percent at the free-throw line (9-for-11)
• NJCU shot 41.5 percent from the field (22-for-53), 22.2 percent from 3-point range (2-for-9), and 66.7 percent at the free-throw line (16-for-24)
• The teams were dead-even in rebounding (36-36) and points off turnovers (13-13), with the Lions' dozen treys counteracting NJCU's 36-28 advantage in points in the paint
• TCNJ won the turnover battle against an NJCU side that came in ranked in the top-25 nationally in turnovers forced and steals per game, committing just 12 turnovers to 16 for the visitors

FOR THE FOES

• Bakhi Rogers-Robinson added to his NJAC leading scoring average with 23 points
• Donovan Crawford posted a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, but no other Knight managed more than six points

STANDOUT LIONS

• Koch finished 8-of-15 from the field, including 2-for-3 from beyond the arc while playing all 40 minutes
• Okocha made three 3-pointers en route to an 11-point afternoon
• Solomon turned in a workmanlike performance with nine points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and a season-high three blocks
• Dipasupil had 10 points and a pair of steals, while Bakare and Yarus tallied seven points and four rebounds apiece

NOTES

• Koch became the 7^th player in program history to eclipse 1,500 career points, ultimately moving past Kevin Ryan (1986-90) and into 6^th all-time with 1,519 markers
• Solomon moved into the all-time top-10 in assists (251); he joins Jimmy Glover (1987-90) as the only players in TCNJ history with more than 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 250 assists in a career
• Saturday marked Solomon's 100th career game and 89th start
• Okocha became the 15^th player in school history with at least 100 career 3-pointers
• Kaminski made his first career start, while Milligan made his second
• TCNJ has won six in a row over NJCU

UP NEXT

• TCNJ hits the road to take on William Paterson next Wednesday