EWING, N.J. (December 1, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark women's basketball team saw a big second quarter by host TCNJ lead to a 61-52 New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) defeat this afternoon. The Scarlet Raiders move to 4-2 (2-1 NJAC) while the Lions improve to 3-3 (3-0 NJAC).

Senior Faith Ashby led Rutgers-Newark with another strong offensive performance, pouring in a game-best 27 points on 11-of-23 shooting from the field while contributing a squad-high five steals. Junior Hannah Ashby joined her in double-figures with 10 points including 2-for-4 from beyond the arc. Freshman Dorian Capurso had a team-best 10 rebounds and added seven points.  

The Raiders stay on the road as they head to NYU for a non-conference matchup on Monday at 6 p.m.

Rutgers-Newark started out strong, scoring the first five points of the contest as the team opened an 8-2 lead. Faith Ashby started things off with a steal and fastbreak bucket while Hannah Ashby capped the spurt with a 3-pointer.

The visitors maintained that edge for the next three and a half minutes before ending the period with a 13-8 edge.

Unfortunately, TCNJ scored the first 11 points of the second quarter and did not look back. The Lions went on to outscore R-N 20-5 in the stanza and took a 28-18 lead into the locker rooms.

The Scarlet Raiders came out strong again to start the second half as sophomore Comfort Akinbo got things going with lay-in off a feed from rookie Elisha India Cross. Faith Ashby contributed another basket in the paint before an Akinbo lay-up cut the deficit to 28-24.

Newark would fight all the way back with a 15-5 surge that knotted the game at 33-33, capped by a basket from Capurso with 4:08 to go in the quarter.

Still, the Lions reeled off nine straight points to end the third and reclaim a comfortable 42-33 advantage.

Nine points was as close as the Raiders would get for the remainder of the contest as TCNJ built a lead as large as 17 en route to the 61-52 victory.