UNION, N.J. (1/4/14) – The Kean University women's basketball team topped New Jersey City University 61-54 on Saturday afternoon. Jaquetta Owens (16 points) and Jazmine Davis (11 pts) led the Cougar offense in the victory. The Cougars are now 6-5 on the year and 3-2 in the NJAC.

The two sides combined to miss the first six field goals of the game before NJCU hit three-in-a-row to leap out to a 7-0 lead early on. Davis, Owens (pictured left) and Simone Smith scored the next six points of the game for Kean to get the Cougars back within one. Kean was struggling to shoot the ball (15 percent from the floor in the first seven minutes), but forced eight Knight turnovers over the same stretch to keep it close.

Kenya Adams tied it at 10 for the Cougars with a lay-in midway through the first period. The advantage ebbed back to NJCU, but AnnaRose Pierre knocked down an elbow jumper to tie the ballgame up again at 16.

Pierre hit another jumper to give Kean the lead, and Owens swished a three-pointer from the corner as the Cougars went on an 11-0 run late in the first to take a 23-16 lead and force the Knights to call timeout. The Kean defense did not allow a point for six-and-a-half minutes and held the Knights without a field goal for over eight minutes. That run allowed the Cougars to take a five point halftime lead into the locker room at 25-20.

Smith scored the first bucket of the half, but the Knights then went on an 8-0 run of their own to re-take the lead at 17:08 of the second period.

Davis scored a lay-in to swing the lead back to the Cougars, and then completed a traditional three-point play on the next possession to put Kean up by four. The Cougars maintained that spread for the next seven minutes and had success feeding Smith in the post. Kean then lept out to its largest lead - nine points on Eboni Wood's layup at 8:22 – forcing NJCU to call timeout.

Kean's Stephanie Carlone came out of the stoppage and drained a jumper and Owens capitalized on another traditional three-point play to extend the Cougar lead even further into double-digits.

Bria Smith was a bright spot for NJCU, as the freshman scored 23 points with 19 boards. In the final minute the Gothic Knights closed the gap to six points, but the outcome was never truly in doubt again. NJCU fell to 4-7 and 1-4 in the NJAC with the loss, despite out-rebounding the Cougars 51-45.

The Kean women's team will travel to Fairleigh Dickinson University on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. tilt with the Devils.