UNION, N.J. (2/6/21) – Nate Lyles and Tyrese Johnson combined for 27 points as the Kean University men's basketball team dropped the second game of a home and home series with New Jersey City University, 70-60 on Saturday afternoon.

Denzel Banks finished with 12 points and seven rebounds for the Gothic Knights who improve to 2-0 overall and 2-0 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. Lyles totaled 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks for the Cougars who fall to 0-2 overall and 0-2 in the NJAC.

NJCU opened with an 8-3 run, before the Cougars answered with a 9-2 run of their own to take their first lead of the game at 12-11. Kean extended their lead to 18-13 with 10:57 remaining on a Jailen Jamison layup. Jersey City responded with an 8-4 run to regain the lead at 21-20 with 9:07 remaining. 

The remaining nine minutes saw both sides trade buckets with neither team taking larger than a five-point lead. An Alkeim Raines Jr. triple and a Johnson layup kept the Cougars within striking distance at 36-34 with 1:34 to play in the opening stanza. The Gothic Knights scored the final five points of the half and lead 41-34 at halftime.

The second half saw NJCU open with an 11-5 run to put the Cougars into a double digit deficit that they couldn't recover from. Jersey City extended their lead to the largest of the game at 63-46 with 6:52 remaining. Kean ended the contest on a 14-7 run that included a combined 11 points from Lyles and Johnson.

Johnson finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Justin Singh-Smith totaled nine points and three rebounds.

Head Coach David Turco and the Cougars will return to action on Friday, Feb. 12th, hosting the Red Hawks of Montclair State University at 5:00 p.m.