NEWARK, NJ – Despite a team-high 13 points from senior guard Youngor Kehleay (Eatontown, NJ/Monmouth Regional) the Scarlet Raiders fell to two-time defending New Jersey Athletic Conference champion Kean 59-41 in the Golden Dome.
NCAA Box Score
Freshman guard Tamara Trotz (East Orange, NJ/East Orange) netted a career-high 11 points in the loss, while fellow freshman Jared Tactuk (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley) added 10 points and a career-high five steals. Junior Courtney Vacca (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills) finished with a team-high nine rebounds.
The Scarlet Raiders came out firing early led by Kehleay who netted five quick points over the first four minutes of action to spearhead an 8-1 Rutgers-Newark run. Tactuk kept things rolling, netting her second three-pointer of the evening to push the lead to 11-3 with 14:42 to go in the first half.
The Cougars would respond with a run of their own, outscoring the Scarlet Raiders 18-1 over an eight minute stretch to take 21-12 advantage with just over seven minutes left to play in the first.
Down 27-18 Trotz ended a 12 and a half minute Scarlet Raider field-goal drought, connecting from long distance to trim the Rutgers-Newark deficit to six at the 2:05 mark.
Cougars' freshman forward Danielle McFadden would push the Kean lead back up to eight on a put-back with 34 ticks left in the stanza.
Sophomore Angelica Bermudez would extend the Cougar lead to 12 at 33-21, with a pair of quick baskets coming out of the intermission.
Vacca would momentarily stem the Kean tide with a basket at 17:19 to cut the lead to 10, but a Melissa Beyruti triple with just under 17 minutes to go would spark 10-2 Cougar run, pushing the lead to 18 with just under 11 minutes to play.
Tactuk would register the Scarlet Raiders' first field-goal in over six minutes of play on a step-back jumper at 10:23, but the Cougars would hold steady over the final ten minutes to seal a Kean victory.
Bermudez and Cougars' junior forward Cardiss Jackman led all scorers with 15 points apiece, with Bermudez hauling in a game-high 17 rebounds, while Beyruti added 14 points and four boards.
The Scarlet Raiders finished just 12-for-55 from the floor (.218) and 6-for-15 from behind the arc, while the Cougars went 9-for-30 (.315) and 4-for-17 (.235) from long distance. Kean finished with a decisive 59-30 rebounding edge, outscoring the Rutgers-Newark 18-8 in the paint and 19-8 on second chances.
Rutgers-Newark closes out its four-game homestand with a men's and women's doubleheader against Baruch on Monday, December 6.
