WAYNE, N.J. (February 3, 2018) – The Rutgers University-Newark women's basketball team had a tough shooting day and fell to New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) foe William Paterson University on the road, 60-46. The Scarlet Raiders move to 7-15 (2-13 NJAC) while the Pioneers improve to 12-10 (9-6 NJAC).

R-N was led by junior Faith Ashby who poured in a game-high 20 points while adding three steals, three rebounds, an assist, and a block. Senior Nicole Skelly joined her in double-figures and notched a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards. She got half of her scoring done from the free throw line, going 5-for-6.

Newark struggled early on as the home team jumped out to an 11-2 lead that they built into a 22-6 advantage by the end of the first quarter. Although the Pioneers recorded the opening bucket of the second, Ashby began to bring the Scarlet Raiders back. First, she hit a fastbreak lay-up while drawing contact and sunk the freebie for a traditional three-point play. Then, she nabbed a steal and knocked down a jumper on the other end. Finally, to cap her one-woman 7-0 run, Ashby swiped a different Pioneer and took it coast-to-coast for another lay-in to make it 24-13. Unfortunately, that was as close as the visitors would get as WPU took a 37-18 lead into the break.

After William Paterson extended its advantage to 25 late in the third, the Scarlet Raiders rallied to cut down their deficit. It was Ashby who started things off once more with a jumper in the paint. Sophomore Louise Ann Borja tacked on a free throw followed by an Ashby lay-up. Then, Skelly capped the 8-0 spurt with a shot from beyond the arc off a feed from Ashby.

Midway through the fourth quarter, R-N was able to make it a slightly more manageable contest on the back of a 10-2 run featuring points from three different players and sparked by another and-one effort by Ashby. The Scarlet Raiders also netted the last three points of the game, all from the charity stripe, for the final 60-46 tally as they fought hard for all 60 minutes and edged WPU in the fourth, 17-11.

Rutgers-Newark returns to action on Wednesday at 6 p.m. with a league matchup against Stockton in The Golden Dome.