Box Score

WAYNE, N.J. (Feb. 10, 2018) – When the Rutgers University-Camden women's basketball team entered Saturday's game at William Paterson University, it was sitting in third place in the New Jersey Athletic Conference standings and striving for a first-round NJAC playoff home game on Feb. 17.
 
After suffering a 66-57 loss against the Pioneers, however, the Scarlet Raptors are now looking at the prospect of a road playoff game unless they can post a victory at NJAC-leading Montclair State University in their final regular-season game Wednesday night at 6 p.m.
 
Paterson, one of the many teams jockeying for position in the crowded field among the six teams that will comprise the NJAC post-season tournament, raced to a quick 8-0 lead and never trailed in the game. The Pioneers, who now have defeated the Scarlet Raptors twice this season and own a 53-11 all-time lead in the series, held leads of 23-12 after one quarter, 33-22 at halftime and 43-27 after three quarters.
 
The Pioneers improve to 13-11 overall and 10-7 in the NJAC, entering Wednesday night's final regular-season conference game sitting sixth in the standings. Paterson, however, is only one game behind both Rutgers-Camden and Rowan University, who both own 11-6 conference marks. Paterson holds the tie-breaker over Rutgers-Camden by virtue of its two regular-season wins, if those two teams end up tied. Rowan, at the moment, holds a tie-breaker over the Scarlet Raptors by virtue of a win over a higher-seeded team, The College of New Jersey. Rutgers-Camden and Rowan split their regular-season series.
 
Montclair State leads the NJAC with a 15-2 record, TCNJ is second at 15-3 and Stockton is third (12-5).
 
Rutgers-Camden, which saw its six-game winning streak snapped, falls to 14-9 overall.
 
Senior forward Tori Woetzel (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) led the Pioneers with game-high totals of 16 points and five blocked shots, tied for game-high honors with two steals and also added eight rebounds and three assists. Junior guard CeCe Green (Boonton, NJ/Boonton) notched a career-high 15 points for Paterson, while junior guard Julia Rovito (Ridgefield Park, NJ/Ridgefield Park) collected 12 points, a team-high nine rebounds and a game-high seven assists. She also tied three other players for game-high honors with two steals.
 
Junior guard Ashley Castillo (Ridgefield Park, NJ/Ridgefield Park) was the fourth Pioneer scoring in double figures, notching 10 points.
 
Rutgers-Camden received another double-double from senior forward/center Michelle Obasi (Camden, NJ/Camden Catholic), her eighth this season and the 19th of her career. Obasi scored 14 points, collected 12 rebounds and added four blocked shots, all team highs, while adding four assists. The contest marked her 100th career game, making her only the third player in program history to reach the century mark.
 
Obasi, pictured above, also moved up to eighth on the all-time scoring list (1,162 points, passing the 1,154 Maureen McGovern scored from 1994-99), moved to 12th with 141 career assists (passing a pair of players), tied for 10th on the career list for steals with Samantha Bragg, who had 149 steals from 2009-11, and hiked her career rebounding total to 782. She remains sixth on that career list.
 
Obasi's four blocks, meanwhile, gave her an even 100 for her career, making her only the ninth player in program history to reach that level. She also had four field goals, hiking her career total to 494 and moving past Megan Rulon (491 from 2002-06) into sixth place on the career list.
 
Freshman guard Shane Holmes (Mount Laurel, NJ/Lenape) added 13 points for the Scarlet Raptors, breaking her previous career high of 11 set against New Jersey City University Dec. 2.
 
Rutgers-Camden shot 30.6 percent from the field (19-for-62), while Paterson shot 37.5 (21-for-56). The Raptors held a 45-42 edge in rebounds, but also made six more turnovers (18-12).