Mahwah, NJ: The Ramapo College men's basketball team fell short by four points, 62-66 to New Jersey City University in a NJAC match-up tonight at the Bradley Center in Mahwah. Ramapo falls to .500 on the year at 6-6 overall while standing 1-1 in conference play. The Gothic Knights improve to 9-4 on the year, 2-0 in the conference.
The lead changed five times in the first five and a half minutes of the game before the Roadrunners connected a 4-0 and a 9-0 run split by one Gothic Knight point to take a 21-9 lead with 5:23 left on the clock. Junior Tim Wesley (Jersey City, NJ) hit a jumper to spark the team's first run and senior Jason Marshall (Hackensack, NJ) dropped in a lay-up sparking the second. Junior guard Dana John (Hillside, NJ) hit two free throws to come within ten and Omar Alston (Carteret, NJ) hit a jumper to put Ramapo up by 12 for the second time in the half. Another two free throws from John, with 4:28 to go, sparked an 11-0 Gothic Knight run to close the gap, 22-23 with just under two minutes to play. The Roadrunners would score the final five points of the half including a three-pointer at the buzzer from Ahmad Hassan (Edgewater, NJ) to head into the locker room six points on top of NJCU, 28-22.
Alston led Ramapo with eight first half points hitting 4-6 from the field while Wesley netted six of his own. The team combined for 12 good field goals and held the Gothic Knights to only seven for their lowest first half showing of the season at 22 points. John scored half of NJCU's points hitting only 3-10 from the field, including one three-pointer, and a perfect 4-4 from the line. John grabbed a team high three steals.
Ramapo slowly grabbed a 12 point edge after Hassan hit a three-pointer at the 12:23 minute mark. From that point on, NJCU controlled much of the action coming within four at 9:35 and again at 8:40. With 6:28 to go in the game, Marques Hill (Hillside, NJ) hit a jumper to tie the game at 49 for the first tie since the opening five minutes of the game. The Gothic Knights took the lead with just over three minutes to play when John sunk a three-pointer to go up, 55-52. NJCU held a slight edge until 00:30 left in the game when Wesley hit a three-pointer to come within one, 62-63. Ramapo was unable to hold on and NJCU walked away with their second conference win of the season, 66-62.
John finished the night with 23 points hitting 5-14 from the field and 11-12 from the free throw line. John grabbed six steals in the win and pulled down six boards. With his 23 points, John moves into 19th place in school history with a career high 1,096 points passing Dwayne West, brother of NBA star David West.
Hill was the second leading scorer with 11 points and led the team in rebounds with nine. The team went 20-60 (33%) in the game while Ramapo shot 24-61 (39%). Ramapo's 30 turnovers came as a key factor in the team's sixth loss of the year. Alston came out on top of all Roadrunners with 14 points and Wesley wrapped up the night with 12.
The Roadrunners return to action on Saturday, January 12th when they travel to Richard Stockton for a NJAC match-up at 4:00 PM while the Gothic Knights host Kean University at 3:00 PM.
