Ramapo College Holds Off Rutgers-Newark For 6th Straight Win

After extending their winning streak to five games last Saturday at Stockton University, the Ramapo College Roadrunners (6-1, 4-0 NJAC) attempted to keep the good karma going against Rutgers-Newark (2-6, 0-4 NJAC) on Wednesday night at the Bradley Center.

Early in the game both teams’ struggled mightily from the perimeter. The Scarlet-Raiders slowed the game considerably on every offensive possession by milking the shot clock. Despite Nick Stanek departing the game with his second foul at the 13-minute mark, the Roadrunners went on a 10-2 run taking a 17-9 lead with less than eight minutes to go. Ramapo received terrific contributions off the bench from Rob McWilliams, who scored six of his eight points in the game, and Connor Romano, who drilled a trifecta and jumper in the last two minutes, expanding the margin to 31-13 at halftime.

In the second half, the Roadrunners continued to cruise along widening the advantage to 39-19 with less than 15 minutes remaining. Chris Moseley sank two free throws pushing it to 45-23 with 12:29 left. Rutgers-Newark’s offense picked up steam drilling five of nine three-pointers. A 10-0 run Scarlet Raider run cut the deficit to 49-40 with 7:24 on the clock.

Patrick Peterson managed to right the ship for Ramapo burying a jumper from beyond the arc. Down the stretch, the Roadrunners netted four of six free throws for the 60-47 victory. Chris Moseley was the leading scorer for Ramapo with 12 points while Thomas Bonacum added eight points.

“Not happy at all, obviously expected to win, we get up by 21, and lack of effort let them get it to seven,” said Ramapo College Head Coach Chuck McBreen. “In the second half, we were terrible and only scored 29 points and were outscored 34-29.”

“We were struggling in the locker room and I said it to them. They (Rob McWilliams, 8 points and Connor Romano, 5 points) helped us separate”.

“Our five seniors were terrible, and they get layups around the bucket and missing and not finishing plays and second half we stopped defending. They’re getting to the goal and getting wide open three’s and layups and getting a little confidence and swag and now we’re trying to stop the momentum” “They stopped us offensively, and we couldn’t do anything, and they were playing without Loften-Harris.”

On Saturday the Roadrunners travel to Kean University (1-5, 1-3 NJAC) with tip-off at 1:00 p.m. Last season Ramapo swept the regular-season set handily by scores of 96-62 and 82-62.

“We have our work cut out for us. Kean is a much-improved team,” McBreen said. “We have to get better effort and good thing is we didn’t blow the lead and bad thing so much inconsistency right now.”