Mahwah, NJ: The Red Hawks of Montclair State upset #25 Ramapo College, 67-64 tonight in the semi-final men's basketball match-up of the 2011 New Jersey Athletic Conference match-up. With the victory, Montclair advances to play the Gothic Knights of New Jersey City University on Friday evening for the conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Tournament.

A 14-point lead in the first half wasn't enough for Ramapo to overcome Montclair as Rodney Freeney hit what turned out to be a key three-point basket and two free throws in the final minute of play to push Montclair to a 67-64 victory. Freeney finished the night with a team high 19 points, all scored in the second half. Charles Miller and AJ Larkin added 12 and ten respectively as the team combined for 23 field goals 52 attempts hitting 44% from the field. Larkin dished out four assists and Tom Bonard grabbed two steals in the win. Elgin Brown recorded a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Demetrius Boards chipped in 13 points on the night. AJ LoRusso and Ahmad Hassan netted 12 and 11 points respectively while LoRusso dished out five assists. Hassan grabbed four steals in the loss.

Ramapo jumped out to a double-digit lead after a 14-4 run, sparked by LaQuan Peterkin at 18:43, and capped off at 12:56 by Boards put the Roadrunners up by ten to start the game. Montclair responded with a mini 4-0 run with all points from Miller, before Ramapo worked their way to their biggest lead of the half just four minutes later, when a jump shot from Brown put Ramapo up, 23-9 with just under five minutes to play. A layup from Tyrone Prewitt sparked an 11-0 Red Hawk run which continued through the 17th minute of the half to cut Ramapo's lead to just three points, 23-20. Boards and Will Sanborn put away six total points in the final minutes while Miller sunk two for the Red Hawks for a 29-22 Ramapo lead at the half. Ramapo shot a combined 14-30 (47%) behind eight points each from Brown and Boards. Brown pulled down a team high six boards and Ahmad Hassan grabbed three steals. Montclair was held to just eight field goals hitting 8-22 (36%). Miller netted eight points and four rebounds leading the team in the first 20 minutes of the game.

At the start of the second half, Montclair earned their first lead of the game at 16:09 when Bonard drained a three-point basket off a dish from Larkin to go up, 32-31. The score flip-flopped twice before Montclair worked to a five point, 39-34 lead as Freeney sunk a jump shot with 14:18 to play. The Red Hawks held onto the lead until the 10:38 minute mark when a basket from Peterkin tied the game for the third time, this time at 46. Over the remainder of the half, the lead changed five times with MSU jumping ahead, 65-62 with a three-pointer from Freeney with just 21 seconds to play. LoRusso drove the length of the court and laid the ball in to come within one, 65-64 with 12 seconds on the clock. After a Ramapo timeout, Freeney put away two free throws to go ahead 67-64, before a last second three-pointer attempt from Sanborn fell short giving the Red Hawks a 67-64 victory in Mahwah. Freeney recorded all 19 points in the second half as his team went 15-20 (50%) from the field. Bonard added nine points to the half. LoRusso led the Roadrunners with 12 points in the final 20 minutes of play. Ramapo shot 36% hitting 12-33 from the field.

The Roadrunners await news on an at-large bid to the 2011 NCAA Championship Tournament which is released Monday at noon.