NEWARK, N.J. (November 17, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's basketball team cruised to an 81-60 victory in its regular season opener and the second game of the 2018 John K. Adams Tip-off Tournament over visiting Elms College in The Golden Dome. The Scarlet Raiders improve to 1-0 while the Blazers fall to 0-2.

Rutgers-Newark was led by senior Mark Isiofia-Thomas and junior Chase Barneys who shared game-high honors with 15 points. Isiofia-Thomas shot 7-of-13 from the field and added a team-best seven rebounds. Barneys was very efficient, hitting on 4-of-7 attempts from the field including 2-for-3 from beyond the arc and 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Rookie Xavier Townes joined them in double-figures with 10 points in his first collegiate game and senior Tyler Ofray chipped in nine points and a game-best five steals.

12 different Raiders recorded at least a point as the team shot 56.3% (27-48) from the field and 40.0% (6-15) from deep.

In the first game, Marywood University routed Hunter College 83-58.

R-N will face Marywood in the championship game tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. while Hunter and Elms face off in the consolation contest at 1 p.m.

In the first half, the Scarlet Raiders got off to a slow start and trailed 9-2 a little less than five minutes into the game. Still, the hosts rallied and reeled off a 12-5 run to knot the score at 14-14. Four different players contributed led by four points from Townes.

The next and last tie of the afternoon came at 17-17 on a freebie by freshman Jordan Salisbury as Rutgers-Newark scored the next nine points and never led by less than five the rest of the way.

The Raiders turned a 26-21 edge into a 51-34 lead at the break and never looked back.

The closest Elms got in the second half was 53-36 while Newark built its lead to as large as 26 points with 3:13 to play.