MAHWAH, N.J. (February 1, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's basketball team gave nationally-ranked No. 7 Ramapo College all it could handle Wednesday night at the Bradley Center, but the Scarlet Raiders fell just short, dropping a 68-63 nailbiter to the Roadrunners.
 
Freshman guard Chase Barneys was exceptional, hitting three late three-pointers to keep his team within striking distance, eventually finishing the game with a career-high of 24 on the back of five three-pointers and 8-of-16 shooting. He also added a team-best six assists, three steals and three rebounds in what ended up being one of the best individual performance of the season for an R-N player.
 
Rutgers-Newark falls to 6-15 overall and 5-9 in the league, while the Roadrunners move to an excellent 20-1 overall and 13-1 in the conference.
 
Despite the loss, the young Scarlet Raiders represented themselves incredibly well on the road against the seventh-ranked team in the nation, especially after suffering a 22-point loss to the Roadrunners back on December 7 in Newark.
 
Early in the action a three-pointer from Barneys put Rutgers-Newark on the board, and six minutes in, a jumper from senior forward Nadir Alston made it 8-4 Raiders.
 
Back-to-back buckets from Barneys pushed the Newark lead to eight points with 13 minutes left in the opening period, but an 8-0 run for the Roadrunners tied the game at 12 moments later.
 
The two squads would go bucket-for-bucket to close the half, with the largest lead for either team being four points and Ramapo taking a slim 30-28 margin into the intermission.
 
The Roadrunners extended the lead to six early in the second, but a three-pointer from freshman guard Ty-Lynn Johnson brought Newark back within two (38-36). A jumper from sophomore forward Mark Thomas tied things at 40-all, and after Ramapo countered with a triple, freshman forward Landon Gaines and freshman guard Mike Vick each hit shots to put Newark in front 45-43 with 11:25 remaining.
 
Two foul shots from veteran forward Thomas Bonacum as part of a 5-0 Roadrunner run put the score back in the home team's favor, and Ramapo extended to a seven-point margin (59-52) with less than four minutes to go.
 
The resilient Raiders could have quit then, but did not, fighting tooth-and-nail to get back in the game. Barneys canned back-to-back triples to bring his team within two points (60-58) at 2:47 but Ramapo did just enough to close out the win, even dodging another Barneys three-pointer with 41 seconds left that made it a one-possession game (66-63).
 
Gaines joined Barneys in double figures with 12 points and four assists, and Thomas had nine points and five rebounds. Alston had six points and 10 rebounds, with veteran big man Kenya Brown tallying six points and three boards.
 
Rutgers-Newark shot an excellent 51 percent from the field and 45 percent from three, holding a 30-26 margin on the glass. Ramapo held a 24-11 edge in bench points, also committing eight less turnovers than the Raiders (20-12). The Roadrunners shot 46 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 78.3 percent from the line. Ramapo was also whistled for 11 less fouls than Rutgers-Newark, resulting in an enormous 23-2 advantage in free-throw attempts.
 
The Scarlet Raiders host William Paterson University Saturday night in The Golden Dome. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. and all the action can be seen live at www.rutgersnewarkathletics.com.