JERSEY CITY, N.J. – The TCNJ men's basketball team's saw its eight-game winning streak end in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday as New Jersey City scored on an inbounds play with 1.1 seconds remaining to steal a 70-69 victory in an NJAC nail-biter.
 
Despite taking a loss for the first time in a month, the Lions (18-6, 13-4) took no damage to their playoff positioning with the No. 2 seed already secured.
 
TCNJ looked dead in the water after the Gothic Knights had grabbed a 68-63 lead on a 3-pointer with just over a minute remaining, but Nick Koch drilled cold-blooded treys on back-to-back possessions to give the blue and gold the lead with 8 seconds to play. NJCU advanced the ball into the frontcourt and called timeout, and Donovan Crawford slipped into the paint for an uncontested lay-in. TCNJ had one last chance, but was unable to get off a final shot.
 
Crawford's last-second game-winner was the 12^th and final lead change in a thriller that also featured nine ties, one in which neither side led by more than seven points. Many of those lead changes came in the first half, and it was the TCNJ bench providing momentum at the end of the half as Anthony Milligan sandwiched a 3-pointer and a three-point play around a basket by Lucas Dipasupil to cap an 8-0 run and give the visitors a 36-29 advantage with 1:34 on the clock.
 
TCNJ took its biggest lead of the day at 43-36 on a 3-pointer by Jonathan Okocha and a basket from Koch, but NJCU (14-10, 10-7) wrested the lead back on a run of nine straight points from Bakhi Rogers-Robinson, whose 3-pointer made it 49-46 with 13:55 to go.
 
The Gothic Knights had their biggest advantage of the afternoon at 59-53 before the Lions held them scoreless for more than five minutes, eventually pulling even at 59 on a free throw by Koch with 4:16 remaining.
 
After trading a pair of ties, Jayden Brown scored five straight points, the last on a 3-pointer that put NJCU ahead 68-63 with 1:03 to play. Koch took over from there, but his last-minute heroics unfortunately went for naught.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• TCNJ shot 38.0 percent from the field (19-for-50), 32.0 percent on 3-pointers (8-of-25), and 74.2 percent at the line (23-for-31)
• NJCU was 47.1 percent from the floor (24-for-51), 40.0 percent from 3-point range (4-of-10), and 75.0 percent at the line (18-for-24)
• NJCU held a 37-31 advantage on the glass and scored 30 points in the paint to TCNJ's 20

FOR THE FOES

• Rogers-Robinson led all scorers with 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting
• Crawford had 12 points and eight rebounds
• Arterio Williams finished with 10 points

STANDOUT LIONS

• Koch's late surge gave him a team-high 20 points
• Matthew Solomon made all seven of his free throws and finished with 13 points and eight rebounds
• Okocha hit double figures with 11 points, and David Alexandre added nine
• Khalid Bakare matched Solomon for the team lead with eight rebounds

NOTES

• Koch moved past Sean Covington '99 and into 2^nd all-time with 385 assists
• Solomon moved into a tie with Joe Amari '00 for 6^th on the all-time assists list with 281
• Okocha eclipsed 500 career points
• The Lions' 8-game winning streak was their longest regular-season run since a nine-game stretch in 2017-18

UP NEXT

• The Lions wrap up the regular season with a highly anticipated matchup against No. 1 Montclair State, the only undefeated team in Division III, on Wednesday night