NEWARK, N.J. (January 25, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark women's basketball team suffered a tough loss at the hands of Kean University Wednesday night in The Golden Dome, falling 77-71 to the Cougars in a New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) nailbiter.
 
Rutgers-Newark falls to 4-8 in the league and 6-13 overall, and Kean moves to 12-6 overall and 9-2 in the NJAC.
 
The Scarlet Raiders received several sparkling performances in the loss as senior guard Shala Glenn poured in a season-high 21 points on 15 shots, and both senior guard Maria Simmons and sophomore guard Faith Ashby tallied double-doubles. Glenn added nine rebounds to her line, Simmons finished with a near-triple-double of 15 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, and Ashby had 18 points, 11 rebounds and three assists. Freshman forward Autumn Webster posted 11 points, and junior forward Nicole Skelly had six points and five rebounds off the bench.
 
Kean was led by 20-plus points from sophomore guard Marajiah Bacon and junior forward Kenya Adams. Freshman center De'Mean Bond had a double-double of 10 points and an excellent 23 rebounds.
 
Behind its defense, Rutgers-Newark raced out to an early 8-2 lead to force a Cougar timeout, and the lead moved to nine (15-6) with 3:58 left in the first after a three-point play from Glenn and a driving bucket from Simmons. Webster's bank shot allowed Newark to extend the margin to 11 (17-6) moments later, but after trading baskets for the next few minutes, Kean found its rhythm and closed out the quarter on an 8-0 run to trim the Newark lead to 23-20.
 
R-N shot 50 percent from the field in the opening 10 minutes, holding a 15-6 margin on the glass and racking up seven assists as a team.
 
Kean overtook the lead early in the second, but Ashby connected on a jumper to end the Cougar run (12-0) and give the lead back to the Scarlet Raiders.
 
Rutgers-Newark ended up taking a 40-37 lead into the locker room, scoring 6-of-8 down the stretch thanks to a trio of hoops from Ashby and a trio of assists from Simmons. Simmons (12), Ashby (11) and Glenn (nine) led the Rutgers-Newark offense, and Ashby corralled a team-high seven rebounds.
 
Kean tied the game at 45-all four minutes into the second half, but a corner three-pointer for Ashby – again from Simmons – put the hosts up four (50-46) with 4:31 to play in the third. Kean answered, gaining the lead at 54-52 following a pair at the line from Bacon.
 
Rutgers brought a 56-54 edge into the final stanza after a layup from Glenn closed the third-quarter scoring, but the Cougars scored nine of the first 13 points in the fourth to open a 63-60 edge with 5:06 remaining.
 
Kean extended to a five-point margin, but a monster three-point play in transition from Simmons cut the Cougar lead to just two points with 2:52 on the clock.
 
The guests would extend the lead to a game-best six points following an intentional foul whistled on the Raiders, but the deficit did not deter the Raiders who got back-to-back buckets from Glenn to slice the lead back down to two with 29 ticks left.
 
Unfortunately, two would be as close as Rutgers-Newark could get as Kean did enough at the line to close out the win.
 
Rutgers-Newark shot 34.2 percent from the field, 27.3 percent from deep and went 11-for-13 at the line, holding a 49-46 margin on the glass and assisting 17-of-27 made baskets. Newark scored 30 points in the paint and 22 via offensive rebounds.
 
Kean shot 41.5 percent from the field, 25 percent from three and hit 20-of-26 at the stripe. The Cougars tallied 22 assists in the game and scored 33 points in the paint.
 
Rutgers-Newark will return to hardwood with an NJAC game against rival Rutgers University-Camden Saturday night at 6 p.m. in The Golden Dome. R-N topped R-C in Camden 65-53 back on December 14.