MONTCLAIR, NJ -- Freshman guard Greg Moore (Jersey City, NJ/Bayonne HS) hit a 24-foot jumper with four tenth's of the second left to lift Rutgers-Newark to a 58-57 win over Montclair State and into the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship Tournament title game.
NCAA Box Score & Play-by-Play
Moore's jumper came after the North Division top-seed Red Hawks had scratched back from a 9-point second-half deficit to take a 57-55 lead on a put back back by sophomore guard James Williams (Englewood, NJ/Dwight Morrow) with 7.1 seconds left.
Junior forward Deshawn Singleton (Passaic, NJ/Passaic) netted a team-high 21 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished off four assists and made two steals to help Rutgers-Newark to the first NJAC title game in the school's history. Junior forward Phil Barnes (Middlesex, NJ/Middlesex) had nine points and nine rebounds while junior point guard Tim Smith (Mullica Hill, NJ/Camden Catholic) contributed nine points and five rebounds.
Freshman guard Ali Mix (East Orange, NJ/East Orange Campus) paced the Red Hawks (20-6) with 21 points and seven rebounds while junior guard Ken Dudley (Willingboro, NJ/Burlington Tech) chipped in 13 points.
MSU ran out to a 25-13 lead as the Raiders had trouble getting their offense started. But Singleton ignited a 13-0 spurt with a conventional 3-point play, netting two more inside field goals in the run, to boost the Raiders into a 26-25 lead with 1:11 left in the opening half. After Dudley gave the Red Hawks a brief lead with a pair of free throws, Singleton scored down low with seven seconds remaining on an assist from junior guard De'Vion Manning (Maplewood, NJ/St. Benedict's) to give the Raiders a 28-27 edge at the intermission.
A Smith 3-point jumper capped a 9-1 Rutgers-Newark run to start the second half, staking the Raiders to their biggest lead of the night at 37-28 with less than four minutes gone in the period.
But the Red Hawks stayed within striking distance as Mix poured in 17 points in less than 13 minutes. His third 3-point jumper during his streak closed the gap to 55-52 with 3:16 left. With the Raiders going scoreless from the 3:35 mark until the final second, MSU sophomore center Jon Georges (West Orange, NJ/St. Peter's Prep) hit three of four free throws – including pair with 58 seconds left – to level the score at 55-55.
A Rutgers-Newark turnover with 51 seconds left put the game back into the hands of the Red Hawks. Mix drove into the lane and put up a floating jumper which Williams collared on the right side of the rim and put back to give the Red Hawks the lead by two.
After getting the ball to midcourt with 4.4 ticks left, Rutgers-Newark called timeout. MSU, which had committed just five fouls in the half, fouled on the ensuing inbounds play, leaving the Raiders with just 3.1 seconds left to set up the game-winning play.
Smith fired a pass from the right side of the baseline directly to Moore who went straight up with the shot. He found nothing but net and fans briefly stormed the floor.
After order was restored, four tenths of a second were put on the shot clock, and MSU inbounded the ball into the left side of the backcourt to sophomore guard Tom Bonard (Westfield, NJ/Westfield). He dropped the ball on the run behind a defender, gathered it up and got away a shot from five feet beyond the midcourt line just after the buzzer. It banged through the goal, but the shot had been waved off as it left his hands just after the final horn.
Rutgers-Newark (17-11) avenged two losses to MSU this season.
The Raiders, who had never won an NJAC tournament game prior to the arrival of head coach Joe Loughran eight seasons ago, now have reached a new pinnacle of success. After four straight opening-round victories over a five-year period, Rutgers-Newark finds itself a win away from its first NJAC championship and the automatic NCAA Championship Tournament bid at accompanies it.
But Richard Stockton (24-2), an 83-67 winner over William Paterson (20-7) in the other semifinal game, is the defending league champion which downed the Raiders, 73-67, in Pomona in their only meeting of the season.
