Second Half Sends Kean Past Ramapo,
78-66
Mahwah, N.J. (1/16/10) - Senior
Vinnie Darpino (Colonia, N.J.) tallied 26 points
as he led the Kean University men's basketball team to a 78-66 win
over host Ramapo Saturday evening.
The Cougars improve to 5-10 overall, 2-4 in the New Jersey
Athletic Conference (NJAC) 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 (pictured right) 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,
N.J.) at 5:05 for a 63-61 advantage. The Roadrunners cut
the lead to one when sophomore LaQuan Peterkin
(Paterson, N.J.) recorded 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 senior Akinwande Oshodi
(Florence, N.J.) 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 two minutes of action.
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 for a Kean
career-high 26 points. Oshodi (pictured left) 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.
Kean stays on the road and will travel the short distance to
Staten Island on Monday, January 18th for a 1 p.m.
matchup.
