NEW YORK – Junior forward Deshawn Singleton (Passaic, NJ/Passaic) matched a career-high with 25 points on 11-for-19 shooting while leading the Scarlet Raiders to a 78-71 victory over Hunter.

NCAA Box Score and Play-By-Play

The Passaic, NJ native hauled in a game-high 10 rebounds in the win, while senior swingman David Cherry (Linden, NJ/Roselle Catholic) netted 23 points, while adding seven boards. Junior forward Phil Barnes (Middlesex, NJ/Middlesex) chipped in eight points on four-for-six shooting to go along with seven rebounds and two steals.

Singleton put the Scarlet Raiders on the board less than a minute into the game with a jumper in the paint, knotting the score at two. Cherry would then score six of Rutgers-Newark's next eight points as the Scarlet Raiders battled the Hawks to a 10-10 deadlock.

A Ryan Gillens (Newark, NJ/Eastside) free-throw coupled with a Kenny Widgeon (Plainfield, NJ/The Hotchkiss School) jumper would give the Scarlet Raiders a three point lead at the 12:54 mark, before a Mark Courtien triple tied the game once more.

With Rutgers-Newark clinging to a one-point advantage with 10:27 left to go in the half, Hunter senior guard Nicholas Flagg drained a three-pointer to put the Hawks up 19-17. While a Barnes jumper momentarily tied the game at 19, Flagg once again found the range from long distance, hitting his second three of the afternoon to give Hunter a 22-19 advantage.

Three straight points from Cherry would pull the Scarlet Raiders even, before a Tim Smith (Mullica Hill, NJ/Camden Catholic) free-throw and a Singleton dunk helped Rutgers-Newark match its largest lead of the half, 25-22, at 6:07.

The Hawks would outscore the Scarlet Raiders 9-2 over the next three minutes of action to take a four-point lead, before freshman Greg Moore (Jersey City, NJ/Bayonne) converted on a jumper in the lane to stall the Hunter run.

The speedy freshman would force Hunter junior guard Bobby Kiernan into a turnover on the ensuing possession setting up a Widgeon layup that knotted the game at 31.

Despite a Singleton jumper that capped off a quick 6-0 run that put the Scarlet Raiders up two with just under two minutes left to play, the Hawks would tally the stanza's final five points on a Emiljano Kinaj trey and a Joseph DeLuca jumper to take a 36-33 lead into the break.

Singleton would spark a Scarlet Raider run early in the second half, scoring six points during a 13-2 Rutgers-Newark run over the first five minutes of action following the intermission as the Scarlet Raiders sprinted out to a 46-38 lead.

Trailing by six at 15:04, the Hawks used a DeLuca jumper followed by a Kinaj triple to pull within one. Flagg would capitalize on a Scarlet Raider turnover on the ensuing possession, capping off a 9-2 Hunter run with a layup to put the Hawks back on top, 50-49.

A free-throw from junior guard De'Vion Manning (Maplewood, NJ/St. Benedict's) and a Michael DeShields (Magnolia, NJ/Sterling) layup following a Hunter turnover would give the Scarlet Raiders a two point edge before DeLuca connected on a jumper in the lane to tie the game at 52 with 10 minutes remaining.

A Cherry jumper at 5:23 would cap off a 13-6 Scarlet Raider run over the next five minutes of action, before a Frantz Millian jumper and Maka Thomas dunk trimmed the lead to three with just over two and a half minutes left to play.

But Cherry would complete a three-point play the old-fashioned way on the ensuing possession putting the Scarlet Raiders back up six at 2:20.

DeLuca would take advantage of a Barnes foul behind the arc converting all three subsequent free throws to cut the lead back to three, but Barnes would find his way to the basket and hammer home a Smith dish to put the Scarlet Raiders back up five with under a minute left.

Despite a Flagg triple that cut the lead to three with just 33 seconds remaining, the Scarlet Raiders would hang on with the help of Smith and Cherry free-throws to seal the squad's eighth win of the season.

Deluca finished the game 6-for-10 from the floor for a team-high 19 points, while Flagg and Kinaj added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Scarlet Raiders shot a blistering .607 from the floor in the second half to finish the game 31-of-60 from the floor (.517), while holding the Hawks to 11-for-31 (.355) shooting in the second half and 24-for-55 (.436) for the game.

Despite being outscored 26-14 from the bench, Rutgers-Newark held a decisive 24-9 advantage in points off turnovers and a 46-22 margin in points in the paint to capture the see-saw affair which saw 19 lead changes and nine ties.

The Scarlet Raiders will look to make it three in a row when they square off with Southern Maine at the Sig Makofski Invitational hosted by Union College in Schenectady, NY on Friday, January 2.