Box Score

JERSEY CITY, NJ – Rutgers-Newark fell to New Jersey City, 51-50, on a buzzer beating jumper in a New Jersey Athletic Conference game in the Moore Athletic Center.

In a see-saw final minute, the Scarlet Raiders (14-5, NJAC 8-4) fell behind twice to the scrappy Gothic Knights (8-11, NJAC 3-9) with freshman guard Khalid Muhammad hitting a running jumper on the right side of the foul circle as the horn sounded.

Raider sophomore Christian Garcia knotted the score at 46-46 with 2:36 left before NJCU seized a 3-point lead courtesy of sophomore forward Khalid Crawford-Muhammad.  Crawford-Muhammad hit the first of two free throws with 23 seconds left, then grabbed the miss of his second free throw attempt.  Freshman guard Rondre Kelly was fouled and sank a pair of free throws to put the hosts ahead, 49-46, with 21 ticks left.

Rutgers-Newark senior guard Al'Don Muhammad hit a driving layup down the left side of the lane with 15.3 ticks left and drew a foul.  He missed the free throw, but freshman forward David Azoroh snared the rebound and banked in a follow shot from the right side of the lane to give the Raiders a 50-49 lead with 13 seconds left.

The Gothic Knights pushed the ball up court and called a timeout with 9.2 second remaining.  When the Raider defense bottled up the ensuing NJCU possession, the Gothic Knights called time again with just 2.1 seconds left.

After making in inbounds pass from in front of the Gothic Knights' bench, Muhammad took a return pass on the left side, drove across the foul circle and released the game-winning shot just as the horn sounded.

Rutgers-Newark has now lost two of its last three NJAC games by one point on shots at the buzzer.  A week ago, Rutgers-Camden downed the Raiders, 61-60 in overtime, on a last-second shot.

Azoroh came off the bench to lead the Raiders with a dozen points, six rebounds and two blocked shots while senior center Hussein Abdelmaksoud finished with 11 points and six rebounds.  Garcia totaled eight points and a team-high eight rebounds while the Raiders' Muhammad tallied eight points and two assists.

Kelly netted a game-high 16 points while NJCU's Muhammad contributed 10 points and two steals.  Crawford-Muhammad hauled down a game-high 14 rebounds while adding nine points.

Rutgers-Newark lost the game at the free throw line, hitting 13 of 22 chances against the Gothic Knights' 16-for-22 performance.  Twenty turnovers also contributed to the loss.

The Raiders dropped into a third-place tie in the league with William Paterson (13-6, NJAC 8-4) behind Ramapo (17-2, NJAC 11-1) and Richard Stockton (14-4, NJAC 9-3) with six conference games remaining.

Rutgers-Newark travels to Richard Stockton on Saturday for an NJAC doubleheader.  The men's game tips off at 1 p.m. with the women to follow at 3.  The Raider men hope to pull off a sweep of the Ospreys and climb back into a share of second place.