NEWARK, NJ – Senior guard Youngor Kehleay (Eatontown, NJ/Monmouth Regional) tallied a team-high 10 points and added four assists and four steals to lead the Scarlet Raiders to a 59-31 victory over New Jersey Athletic Conference rival Ramapo in The Golden Dome.
NCAA Box Score
Freshman Jared Tactuk (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley) and senior Bimpe Fageyinbo (Morris Plains, NJ/Parsippany Hills) netted nine points apiece, while junior Courtney Vacca (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills) and sophomore Sasha-Ann Quashie (Hackensack, NJ/Paramus Catholic) combined for 12 points and 17 rebounds. Senior Jayne Lin Jones (Rockaway, NJ/Newark Academy) tallied six points and six rebounds in the win, with freshman Shatanay McCaskill (Paterson, NJ/Passaic County Tech) adding five points and seven rebounds.
Trailing by two, Vacca put the Scarlet Raiders on the board at 18:17, with a put-back off of Tactuk's misfire from long distance. A pair of Quashie baskets coupled with a Tactuk three sparked a 16-1 Scarlet Raiders run as Rutgers-Newark took an early 16-3 lead.
After holding Ramapo without a field goal for over 11 minutes after the game's opening basket, sophomore guard Stephanie Cannizzaro finally broke through a stout Rutgers-Newark defense ending the Roadrunner drought with a layup at 9:31.
Five quick points and a pair of Cannizzaro steals would jumpstart a 9-4 Ramapo run cutting the Scarlet Raider lead to eight, but a Fageyinbo jumper and another Tactuk three would push the Rutgers-Newark lead back up to 13 with just under four minutes left to play in the first half.
Capped off by a Quashie runner in the lane, a Tactuk jumper and a pair of Kehleay free-throws, the Scarlet Raiders would close out the half on an 11-3 run to take a 31-15 lead into the break.
Outscoring the Roadrunners 7-4 over the first five minutes of action following the intermission, the Scarlet Raiders stretched their lead to 19 after a Kehleay layup with just over 15 minutes left to play.
After a Cannizzaro steal and layup and a Brittany Hoffman basket trimmed the Roadrunner deficit to 16, Scarlet Raider junior Renee Edwards (Montville, NJ/West Milford) and Fageyinbo accounted for four straight Rutgers-Newark points to push the lead back up to 20.
A pair of Kehleay layups and Jones' three-pointer ignited a 9-2 Scarlet Raider run to increase the lead to 27 with just over five minutes remaining, sealing a second straight victory for Rutgers-Newark.
Cannizzaro led all Ramapo scorers with nine points, while freshman forward Mallory Cornett added five points and four boards in the loss.
Rutgers-Newark shot .375 from the floor, while holding the Roadrunners to 12-for-41 (.293) shooting. The Scarlet Raiders, who finished with a decisive 48-22 rebounding edge, outscored the Roadrunners 26-18 in the paint, while netting 16 second chance points. Rutgers-Newark scored 27 points off of 22 Ramapo turnovers.
The Scarlet Raiders will look to make it three in a row when it plays host to defending NJAC champion Kean this Saturday, December 6 at 5:30 p.m.
