Men's Basketball Closes Out Season
at Rutgers-Newark
NEWARK, N.J. (2/20/10) - The Kean University
men's basketball team closed out the 2009-10 season with a 61-44
loss to Rutgers-Newark in the first-round of the New Jersey
Athletic Conference playoffs.
Junior Jonathan Jones (Linden, N.J.) led the
third-seeded Cougars (9-16) with 14 points and 15 rebounds for his
18th double-double of the season. For
Rutgers-Newark (20-6), the second-seed in the North Division,
senior forward Deshawn Singleton (Passaic, N.J.) scored a
game-high 21 points.
Jones (pictured right) scored the first four points of the game
before the Scarlet Raiders followed with the game's next 18 points,
building an 18-4 lead on a three-pointer by senior guard James
Johnson (Summit, N.J.) with 13:02 remaining.
After the Cougars trimmed the Scarlet Raider back to single
digits, Rutgers-Newark would again lead by 14 points on two more
occasions before taking an 11-point lead into halftime with the
35-24 edge.
Johnson led the Scarlet Raiders with 14 first-half points, while
Jones paced Kean with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
A lay-up by Kean senior guard Vinnie Darpino (Colonia,
N.J.) to open the second half would pull the Cougars back
within single-digits, however Rutgers-Newark scored the next four
points and would maintain a double-digit lead the rest of the way
to advance to the NJAC semifinals, where they face Richard Stockton
College, the NJAC South Division top-seed.
Darpino closed out his Kean career with 14 points, while senior
Brian Lytle (Union, N.J.) had eight points.
