Jersey City, N.J. (2/20/24) – The Kean University women's basketball fell to #2 New Jersey City University by the final of 61-48 on Tuesday evening in the semifinals of the New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Late in the first quarter the Gothic Knights (18-8) used an 8-0 run to push out to their first double-digit lead (16-6).

Trailing 20-8 after the first 10 minutes, the Cougars (17-10) rallied in the second stanza and pulled within two on two separate occasions.  Kean entered halftime trailing by four (28-24).

In the pivotal fourth quarter the Cougars pulled within three on a bucket and one from rookie Gigi Gamble (48-45).  But that would be as close as Kean would get as NJCU went on an 11-0 run over the next three minutes to put the game out of reach.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

Shahd Badeer finished with a double-double 14 points and a monster 26 rebounds (four shy of the Kean single game record).

Gamble finished with 11 points while Brittany Graff added 10 points and five rebounds.

Neither team found much success at the free throw line or three-point line as both shot less than 50% from the charity stripe and less than 20% from beyond the arc.  In fact, NJCU connected on just one trey all evening.