Box Score

NEWARK, NJ – Undermanned Rutgers-Newark could not contain Stevens senior forward Simon Smith in an 82-69 loss in The Golden Dome Arena.

Senior guard Pedro Burgos hit four treys and led R-N with 22 points while senior forward Jeremiah Rivers turned in 14 points and six rebounds before fouling out late in the second half.  Freshman swingman Christian Garcia added 10 points for the Raiders.

Smith, who piled up 22 points, 19 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots, keyed the decisive 21-7 run by the Ducks with 10 points.  Back-to-back buckets by junior guard Sheldon Jones, who added 19 points and nine rebounds, made it 76-65 with 1:58 left.  There were two ties and four lead changes in the second half before the key rally.

Smith, who notched his 14th double-double of the season, hit eight of 11 shots from the field to help the Ducks (16-4) shoot 51.7% (30-58) while the Scarlet Raiders (12-9) lost their second straight game.

The Ducks also got 19 points and five assists from junior guard Russ Thompson.  Thompson made five of eight 3-point shots.  Senior guard Mike Cutri battled foul trouble to finish with 11 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Rutgers-Newark played its second game without junior center Hussein Abdelmaksoud who is out for the season with a rib injury suffered in practice last week.  Without the 6-foot-6 inside player in the lineup, the Raiders had match-up problems with Smith.

Stevens jumped out to a 14-4 lead by hitting its first six shots in the opening 3:20 of the contest.  Rutgers-Newark trailed by as many as 10 points in the opening half before going into the intermission down 40-35.

Junior forward Mark Moorman had a pair of inside buckets and Burgos drained a three to fuel a 9-0 spurt by the Raiders to open the second half.  That gave Rutgers-Newark a short-lived 44-40 lead and set the see-saw second half in motion.

Rutgers-Newark now has four New Jersey Athletic Conference North Division games on tap to finish the regular season.  The Raiders are tied for fourth place in the 5-team division with the top three getting bids to the NJAC Championship tournament.

Rutgers-Newark visits Montclair State on Saturday to begin the 12-day span which will determine the Raiders' post-season hopes.