Senior Night Highlights

NEWARK, N.J. (February 14, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark men's basketball team gave The College of New Jersey all it could handle Wednesday night, but the Lions were able to edge the Scarlet Raiders, 67-62, in a New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) matchup inside The Golden Dome.
 
Rutgers-Newark ends its 2017-18 season 8-16 overall and 4-14 in the NJAC, while TCNJ moves to 14-4 in league play and 19-6 overall.
 
Prior to the game, Rutgers-Newark honored its four seniors in Dave Lunsford, Kenya Brown, Emmanuel Kema and Erick Loften-Harris. The quartet was playing in their final game as Scarlet Raiders.
 
Despite the discrepancy in records, R-N gave the heavily favored Lions and handful, taking a 53-52 lead on a three-point play from Brown with 7:44 on the clock. The Lions responded with eight of the next nine points to take a seven-point advantage with 5:22 to go, and despite going down by eight, Rutgers fought back and found itself within three points after a pair of free throws from junior guard Tyler Ofray.
 
Veteran guard Eric Murdock Jr. upped the guest lead back to five with two foul shots with 41 ticks left, and a late layup from Ofray was not enough as TCNJ did what it needed at the line down the stretch to secure the victory.
 
Ofray led Rutgers-Newark with 16 points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals, and sophomore guard Chase Barneys had 11 points, six rebounds and three assists. Freshman forward Dante Ralph had nine points and four rebounds, with Loften-Harris posting four points, a team-high eight rebounds and three helpers.
 
The Scarlet Raiders totaled 13 assists and just eight turnovers as a team, racking up six steals and five blocks – three from Lunsford who also had four points and five rebounds. R-N shot 34.9 percent from the field, 25 percent from three and 11-for-14 (78.6 percent) at the line, totaling 36 rebounds, 32 bench points and 24 tallies in the paint.
 
The Lions shot 36.8 percent from the field, 32 percent from deep and 17-for-19 at the line, ending the game plus-seven on the glass. TCNJ was led by 20 points and nine rebounds from forward Randy Walko and 19 points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals from Murdock Jr.
 
The game featured eight ties and 13 lead changes and the largest lead for either team was eight.
 
In the first half, TCNJ was able to take a seven-point lead midway through the period, but five points from Ralph in a 7-0 Rutgers-Newark run allowed the hosts to tie the score at 22. A Lunsford layup pushed R-N in front, but the Lions eventually took a 34-30 lead into intermission.
 
Scarlet Raider fans should continue to check www.rutgersnewarkathletics.com for possible postseason honors, and R-N faithful should follow @ScarletRaiders on twitter all offseason for the latest.