WAYNE, N.J. – The TCNJ men's basketball team tipped off the second half of NJAC play with a bang on Wednesday night, clamping down on William Paterson in a 74-51 road romp.
Matthew Solomon racked up a season-high 20 rebounds to go with 11 points and fellow senior star
Nick Koch stuffed the stat sheet with 23 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists for the Lions (12-5, 7-3), who completed a regular-season sweep of the Pioneers for the sixth year in a row. TCNJ also stayed one game back of New Jersey City – a winner over Ramapo on Wednesday – for second place in the league table.
The Lions froze out the Pioneers from the opening tip, stymieing the hosts to just 26.8-percent shooting from the field.
TCNJ only spent 41 seconds without the lead – the time it took for
Khalid Bakare to score a second-chance basket on the team's first possession. It took WPU (6-11, 1-9) more than five minutes to get on the scoreboard, and despite the Lions only managing four points in that stretch, the night's common theme had been established.
After finally denting the scoreboard, the Pioneers needed another three-plus minutes to do so again, by which time the blue and gold had scored seven straight points to open up an 11-2 lead. The margin swelled into double figures for the first time on
Jonathan Okocha's 3-pointer, making it 18-7 at the 8:44 mark, and
Jordan Robinson made a triple of his own as well as another basket during a 7-0 run that extended the spread to 25-9.
Lucas Dipasupil's 3-pointer made it 30-13, the largest lead of the period before the Lions went into the break up 32-17.
Koch scored five straight points to open the second half and hand TCNJ a 37-17 advantage, and added another five in a run of 12 consecutive markers that buried WPU in a 30-point hole (53-23) with 11:21 remaining. The Pioneers did counter with an 11-0 run of their own, but never got the lead under 19.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- TCNJ shot 40.3 percent from the floor (29-for-72), 25.0 percent from 3-point range (8-for-32), and 72.7 percent at the free-throw line (8-for-11)
- WPU shot a frigid 26.8 percent from the floor (19-for-71), 10.0 percent from 3-point range (2-for-20), and 78.6 percent at the free-throw line (11-for-14)
- Behind Solomon, the Lions held a 51-47 edge on the glass and a 42-30 advantage in points in the paint
- TCNJ handed out 19 assists to 11 turnovers, while WPU managed just six assists against 15 turnovers
- TCNJ limited the Pioneers to a measly 0.69 points per possession
FOR THE FOES
- Jianni Moran was the lone Pioneer in double digits with 11 points
STANDOUT LIONS
- Koch finished 9-of-20 from the field and matched his season high in rebounds
- Solomon posted the second 20-rebound game of his career; the other was a school-record 22 boards in last year's NCAA Tournament game against Pitt-Bradford; he also dished out six assists
- Bakare finished with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting
- Okocha (six rebounds) and Daniel Yarus scored eight points apiece
- Robinson had seven points, four rebounds, and two assists
NOTES
- Koch moved past Randall Walko (2016-20) and into 5th on the all-time scoring list with 1,542 career points; he needs just nine to pass Derick Grant (2001-05) and Eric Murdock Jr. (2014-18) for third
- Koch now has an even 350 assists for his career
- Solomon, the NCAA's active leader in career rebounds, is just 10 shy of 900 for his career and produced his 34th career double-double
- TCNJ has won 12 in a row in the series, including the last six played in Wayne; it is the Lions' second-longest active streak against an NJAC foe, trailing only the current 22-game unbeaten run against Rutgers-Camden
- The Lions have won three of their last four conference road games
UP NEXT
- TCNJ heads to Kean on Saturday for an important conference clash
