NEWARK, NJ – Guards
Al'Don Muhammad scored 16 of his game-high 24 points during the decisive 26-14 closing rally which lifted Rutgers-Newark to a 74-71 New Jersey Athletic Conference win over Kean in The Golden Dome.
BOX SCORE & PLAY-BY-PLAY
Junior guard
Pedro Burgos, who netted 18 points, started the rally with two treys and another jumper to shave a 9-point Cougar lead to 59-54 with 8:01 left.
After Kean senior forward Jonathan Jones, who finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and five steals, hit a free throw to give Kean a 60-55 lead with 5:18 left, Muhammad scored 16 of Rutgers-Newark's next 18 points to stake the Raiders to a 73-68 lead with just eight seconds left. He drained three consecutive treys during the run.
But Kean freshman guard J.J. Hladik tossed in a running 36-footer from the right side with 2.6 seconds left to make it a 2-point game. Raider junior guard
Greg Moore was fouled with one second left and made the second of two free throws for the final margin. Kean did not get off a final shot.
Junior forward
Jeremiah Rivers had a dozen points and five rebounds for Rutgers-Newark (14-3, NJAC 4-2) who guaranteed their seventh winning regular-season record in the last eight years under head coach
Joe Loughran.
Sophomore center
Hussein Abdelmaksoud came off the bench for a game-high 11 rebounds, nine points and three blocked shots to barely miss his second consecutive double-double.
Freshman guard Michael Burton had 11 points for Kean (11-5, NJAC 4-1) while sophomore guard Diego Gutierrez notched 10.
Jones had 10 points and Burton nine as the Cougars took a 39-32 lead into intermission. A 3-point jumper by freshman forward Leigh Keenan capped a 9-1 spurt which gave Kean an 18-8 lead with 13-23 left in the first period.
The Raiders clawed back to knot the score at 26-26 on a jumper by Moore with 5:16 left only to see Kean answer with an 11-0 rally. A trey by Gutierrez ended the spree with 2:11 left in the half, giving the Cougars a 37-26 lead. A buzzer beating 3-point jumper by Moore kept the Raiders from taking a double-digit deficit into the locker room.
Rutgers-Newark visits Montclair State on Wednesday for an NJAC doubleheader while the Kean men host the College of Staten Island on Monday. The Raider men tip off against the Red Hawks at 6 p.m. with the women's game to follow at 8 o'clock.
