Mahwah, NJ: In their first game of the New Year, the Ramapo College women's basketball team dropped a tough, 53-62 game to the Lions of the College of New Jersey tonight at the Bradley Center. TCNJ improves to .500 with the win standing at 6-6 overall while the Roadrunners fall to 3-10. Ramapo stands at 1-5 in New Jersey Athletic Conference games and with the win tonight TCNJ jumps ahead to 3-3 in conference play.
Angelica Esposito led the Lions with a team high 22 points shooting 6-11 from the field which included three long shots while Christina Merlin and Nikki Schott netted nine points in the win. The team shot a combined 21-49 (43%) as Esposito dished out four assists. Merlin pulled down a team high eight rebounds. For Ramapo,
Grace Elliott and
Alexandra Seedes each collected 12 points and
Doris Ilic contributed ten as Ramapo shot 18-48 (38%) from the field. Elliot also led the way in rebounds with six.
The College of New Jersey held a slight advantage in the opening minutes until the 1:53 minute mark in the first quarter when a basket from
Kellie Lane put Ramapo ahead, 14-13. The Roadrunners held the lead at the buzzer heading into the second quarter with a 17-13 advantage over the Lions. A three-point goal from Esposito in the opening two seconds of the second quarter put TCNJ within one, 16-17, and a jumper from Dana Kim off a steal by Esposito put the Lions on top, 18-17. TCNJ would hold onto the lead for the remainder of the half to close out the first 20 minutes of play with a 28-22 lead over Ramapo. Esposito dropped 15 points in the first half as the team went 10-27 (37%). Ramapo was led by Ilic in the first 20 minutes as she shot 2-2, both three-point goals, tallying six points. Ramapo hit a combined 9-20 (45%) from the field.
The Lions worked to a double-digit lead in the third quarter at 2:21 when a jumper from Esposito put the team on top, 41-20 as the Lions held the double-digit advantage until the final seconds of the third quarter to lead 44-34 at the buzzer. Ramapo was able to close the gap to just seven points, 39-46 with two free throws from
Alyson Oostdyk with 7:53 to play in the final quarter, and just five points with just over four minutes to play when Elliott put away a jump shot, 44-49. It was TCNJ who held on in the final minutes to take the game, 62-53 for the NJAC victory. Schott posted a team leading eight points in the second half as her team shot 11-22 (50%) while Ramapo hit a combined 9-28 (32%) behind nine points from Seedes.
The Roadrunners return to action on Saturday, January 9th when they host Stockton University at 1pm at the Bradley Center.
