ECAC Tournament Central

R-N Schedule I Stats I ECAC Quarterfinals Recap I ECAC First Round Highlights

Grove City Schedule I Stats

FREDERICK, Md. (March 1, 2019) – Tomorrow afternoon the Rutgers University-Newark men's basketball team will continue its quest for an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Tournament Championship as the Scarlet Raiders (15-12) face off against Grove City College (18-11) in the semifinals, hosted by Hood College.

Rutgers-Newark, the no. 2 seed from Pod 4, find themselves in the semifinals after two very close games. In the first round, the Raiders edged no. 3 Stevenson University at home 77-47. Then, after making the journey down to Hood in Maryland, R-N knocked off the top-seed in Pod 4, Wilkes University, in the final seconds 72-70.

The Wolverines entered the tournament as the no. 2 seed in Pod 1 and hosted no. 3 seed Franciscan University. Grove City handled that first round matchup, coming away with a 73-60 win to set up a quarterfinals contest against top overall seed Hood. The Wolverines proved up to the task, knocking off the hosts of the remainder of the tournament in a high-flying, fast-paced 96-92 victory.

The Scarlet Raiders have seen excellent production from senior Mark Isiofia-Thomas and junior Chase Barneys in both postseason games.

Barneys led the way in the first round win, racking up 23 points as he eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone for his career. The veteran guard also had four steals, four rebounds, and three assists in a great all-around effort. Isiofia-Thomas contributed 20 points on a very efficient 7-for-10 shooting from inside the arc, plus one 3-pointer and a 3-for-3 night at the charity stripe.

During the quarterfinals victory, R-N leaned a little more on Isiofia-Thomas as the senior forward poured in a team-high 21 points on 64.3% shooting from the field while coming through with the game-winner and 11 of the squad's last 13 points. Barneys joined him in double-figures with 18 points including a 3-for-6 afternoon from beyond the arc.

While the Scarlet Raiders will need Isiofia-Thomas and Barneys to continue playing at a high level in order to keep advancing in this tournament, the team has also gotten two key games from different underclassmen. Against Stevenson it was rookie Xavier Townes who provided a spark off the bench with nine points on just three attempts and 5-for-5 shooting from the line in addition to five boards and one assist in 22 important minutes. In the semifinal matchup it was sophomore Quincy Rutherford who scored 10 points and grabbed a team-best seven caroms off the pine in 19 minutes.

Grove City enters this matchup out of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) after earning the two-seed in their league but falling in the semifinals of the PAC Tournament. The Wolverines have four different players averaging double-figure scoring: James Wells (16.9 ppg), Isaac Williams (10.8 ppg), Justice Rice (10.8 ppg), and Nate Peters (10.6 ppg). Wells is also their top rebounded with 7.3 per contest while Rice is the team's assists leader at 2.6 per game.