Box Score

NEWARK, NJ –Rutgers-Newark battled past Richard Stockton, 49-46, in a defensive struggle in the semifinals of the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championship Tournament in The Golden Dome Arena.

The victory sends the second-seeded Scarlet Raiders (20-6) to top-seeded Ramapo (22-4) on Friday night for the NJAC Championship game in the Bradley Center.  Ramapo stopped William Paterson, 83-58, in Mahwah to set up the battle between the two tops seeds.  Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

Senior guard Al'Don Muhammad, who counted his 1,000th career point among his game-high 13, knocked down a pair of treys to fuel a 12-0 run which erased an 11-point Osprey lead in the closing minutes.  His third 3-pointer of the contest gave the Raiders their first lead of the second half at 43-42 with 3:24 left.

Stockton junior point guard Kevin Johnson, who paced Stockton with 10 points, seven rebounds, four steals and a pair of assists, answered with a layup and a jump shot to give the visitors their final lead – and final points - at 46-43 with 2:21 remaining.

Johnson fouled out just 22 seconds later and Raider sophomore guard John Snow hit the first of two free throws to trim the Stockton lead to two before the rebound of the second charity toss went out of bounds off of an Osprey player.

After a Rutgers-Newark timeout, senior center Hussein Abdelmaksoud kicked the ball out of the middle of the lane to sophomore guard Doze Ikwuegbu who drained the wide-open trey from the left elbow to give the Raiders the lead for good.

In the final 52 seconds, Muhammad and sophomore swingman Christian Garcia each made one of two free throws to stretch the Raider lead to 49-46 – their largest lead of the night.

After a timeout, Stockton sophomore guard Josh Blamon got off a challenged 3-pointer from above the key and Garcia snared the loose-ball rebound as the horn sounded.

Garcia finished with seven points and seven rebounds while Abdelmaksoud battled inside for six points and seven rebounds.  Snow added five points and five rebounds while senior forward Fateen Belfield added six points and five rebounds.

Blamon posted nine points for Stockton (19-7).  Senior guard Darnell McCargo netted eight points and tied junior guard Rameel Johnson for game honors with eight rebounds. 

In a scrappy defensive game, things could not have been much closer for the team which entered the contest with identical overall and conference records.  The Raiders held a slim edge in field goal accuracy (30.8% to 29.2%) while making just one less 3-point jumper than the Ospreys.  Rutgers-Newark fought for a 45-44 advantage in rebounding.

The decisive team stat proved to be foul shooting.  Stockton made just three of nine (33.3%) while the Raiders connected on 68.4% (13-19).

Muhammad now has netted 1,004 points.

Ramapo handed the Raiders their worst loss of the year in Mahwah on December 12, 79-52, but Rutgers-Newark shocked the league-leading Roadrunners, 72-69, in The Golden Dome on February 6.

Rutgers-Newark will be playing in the NJAC title game for only the second time in program history.  The Raiders fell to Stockton, 62-54, in the 2009 championship final.

The NJAC tournament winner receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

Under 12th-year head coach Joe Loughran, the Raiders have been to seven of the last nine NJAC tournaments.  Rutgers-Newark has never claimed an NJAC men's basketball title.

The victory also kept the Raiders in the thick of the at-large calculations for the upcoming NCAA Division III Championship.  Rutgers-Newark solidified its status as the third-ranked team in the Atlantic Region behind Old Westbury and Ramapo.  The revised regional polls will be released on Wednesday.