UNION, N.J. – Behind another impressive effort from its trio of senior standouts, the TCNJ men's basketball team held off Kean for am 81-77 NJAC road victory on Saturday afternoon.
 
Nick Koch led all scorers with 25 points and handed out seven assists and Matthew Solomon put his imprint all over the proceedings with another prolific double-double (12 points, 14 rebounds) alongside six dimes of his own for the Lions (13-5, 8-3), who salvaged a split of the regular-season series and moved into a three-way tie for second place in the league strandings.
 
Jonathan Okocha led the supporting cast with 17 points to supplement his senior counterparts as the blue and gold finished off a 2-0 road swing for the week with a hard-fought defeat of a playoff contender that had dealt TCNJ its lone Packer Hall setback back on December 6.
 
After a first-half stalemate, TCNJ went ahead for good at 47-45 on Koch's three-point play with 15:54 remaining. The Cougars (9-9, 6-5) clawed to within a deuce at 53-51, only for Koch and fellow senior Anthony Milligan's back-to-back triples to put eight points' worth of distance between the two sides with under 10 minutes left.
 
From there, it was a matter of fending off the home side. The Lions took their biggest lead, 64-53, on a trio of Okocha free throws at the 8:11 mark, but Kean refused to wilt. Consecutive treys got the Cougars to within five before Koch and Okocha made back-to-back field goals to pour cold water on the potential rally and make it 68-59 just past the 5-minute mark.
 
The Cougars got as close as three (78-75) with just over a minute to go, but Koch ran most of the shot clock down and nailed a dagger jump shot with 35 ticks showing to close it out.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ shot 47.0 percent from the field (31-for-66), 37.5 percent from 3-point range (9-for-24), and 66.7 percent at the foul line (10-for-15)
• Kean finished 50.9 percent from the field (28-for-55), 37.5 percent from behind the 3-point line (6-for-16), and 78.9 percent at the stripe (15-for-19)
• Kean also outrebounded the Lions, 35-33, but TCNJ countered the Cougars' efficient shooting and slim edge on the boards by racking up 23 points to just five turnovers, leading to a 13-4 advantage in points off miscues
• The Lions' care of the ball helped them post an average of 1.23 points per possession

FOR THE FOES

• Malachi Jeffers-Viera had 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting to go with five rebounds and five assists
• Phil Brown Jr. had 16 points and eight boards, and DeAundre Clark paired 15 points with seven rebounds
• Daniel Dextraze made it four in double figures with 12 points

STANDOUT LIONS

• Koch was 10-of-23 from the floor and committed only two turnovers with his seven assists
• Solomon was 6-of-13 from the field and pulled down five offensive rebounds
• Okocha was an efficient 4-of-7 from the field, going 3-for-5 from long range while making 6 of his 9 free-throw attempts
• Milligan made a pair of 3s for six points, while Bakare matched that total alongside three rebounds and three assists
• Lucas Dipasupil had five points and three rebounds in an effective eight minutes off the bench

NOTES

• Koch moved past Derick Grant '05 (1,543) and Eric Murdock, Jr. '18 (1,550) and into 3^rd on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,567 career points
• Solomon, now with 910 career rebounds, joined Don Nolan '83 (998) and Scott Findlay '06 (966) as the only players in program history with more than 900 boards
• Solomon logged the 35^th double-double of his career
• Okocha now ranks 15^th in program history with 107 career 3-pointers

UP NEXT

• The Lions will host Stockton in an important NJAC tilt next Wednesday night; the teams are tied with New Jersey City at 8-3 in conference play