Mahwah, NJ: Senior Vinnie Darpino (Colonia, NJ) tallied 26 points as he led the Kean University men's basketball team to a 78-66 NJAC win over Ramapo tonight at the Bradley Center. The Cougars improve to 5-10 overall, 2-4 in the conference while the Roadrunners drop to 12-4 overall, 3-2 in the conference.

Ramapo took a 35-32 lead into the locker room and led by as many as 15 points in the first half. The Cougars would close the lead to just three points on a last second three point shot by Darpino as the clock expired.

Darpino hit another three pointer with 19:50 to go in the second half to tie the game at 35. The score was tied eight different times before the Cougars started to pull away. Darpino made both foul shots to go up by one with 6:13 remaining, 61-60 before a dunk by junior Jonathan Jones (Linden, NJ) at 5:05 put them ahead 63-61. The Roadrunners cut the lead to one when sophomore LaQuan Peterkin (Paterson, NJ) sunk two foul shots at 4:55.

The Cougars would go on a 10-0 run to end the game. Jones started the run with a dunk at 2:35 (70-66) before a Ramapo turnover and foul with 2:16 to go allowed Akinwande Oshodi (Florence, NJ) to go to the line and push the lead to five, 71-66. The Cougars biggest lead in the game came with just nine seconds left when Jones hit back-to-back foul shots, 78-66. Ramapo missed seven shots in the final 1:48 in the game.

Darpino finished 9-16 from the floor, 2-4 from behind the three-point line and 6-8 from the foul line. He tallied three assists and three steals in 37 minutes of play. Oshodi tallied a double double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 12 rebounds with two blocks. Jones also posted a double-double as he pulled down 15 defensive boards and added 15 points of his own with two blocks. The Cougars shot 52% from the field and out rebounded the Roadrunners, 44-32.

For Ramapo, senior Andre Kenny (Jersey City, NJ) posted 17 points and two steals as sophomore Davian Plunkett and Peterkin each chipped in 11. Plunkett grabbed eight rebounds while Peterkin grabbed four of his own. Sophomore Anthony LoRusso (Mahwah, NJ) added nine points of his own while dishing out a game high eight assists. The Roadrunners shot 34% from the field while going 20-28 (71%) from the foul line.

The Roadrunners return to action when they host NJAC rival New Jersey City University on January 20th at 7:30 PM. Kean returns to action on January 18th when they travel to the College of Staten Island at 1:00 PM.