CAMDEN, N.J. (Jan. 12, 2019) – Senior guard Lavrone Green scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half as the New Jersey City University men's basketball team opened up a three-point halftime lead and went on to defeat Rutgers University-Camden, 81-57, in a New Jersey Athletic Conference game here Saturday afternoon.
 
NJCU, which received seven votes toward this week's D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, improves to 12-4 overall and 7-2 in the conference. Rutgers-Camden falls to 2-14 overall and 2-7 in the NJAC.
 
The Gothic Knights now own a 64-5 lead in the all-time series and have won seven straight games and 26 of their last 27 against the Scarlet Raptors.
 
The Gothic Knights led the entire game and held a first-half lead as large as 10 points (18-8) before watching that margin sliced to 30-27 at halftime. Their balanced first-half attack featured eight players in the scoring column, led by junior forward Sam Toney, last season's NJAC Player of the Year, who had eight points. For Rutgers-Camden, freshman guard Adam Perry scored nine first-half points, while sophomore guard Ian McCarthy added eight.
 
After Raptor sophomore guard Kyle Goodson Jr. cut the gap to 30-28 by hitting a free throw to open the second half, NJCU scored the next five points to open up a 35-28 advantage. The closest the Raptors came the rest of the way was 35-31 after McCarthy answered with a trey.
 
After dabbling with a couple of double-digit leads, the Gothic Knights took a 51-41 lead with 12:25 remaining. They led by double digits the rest of the way, including a high of 26 points twice (71-45 and 78-52).   
 
NJCU outscored Rutgers-Camden, 51-30, in the second half.
 
In addition to Green's 22 points, senior forward James Julius notched 15 points and Toney added 14. Toney also had eight rebounds as the Gothic Knights held a 41-33 advantage off the boards.
 
Senior guard Shaquan Worthy dished off a game-high six assists for NJCU.
 
McCarthy, pictured above, paced the Raptors with 17 points, eight rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Goodson scored 12 points and Perry added 11.
 
NJCU shot 26-for-64 from the floor (40.6 percent), including 14-for-35 (40.0) from three-point range. Rutgers-Camden shot 18-for-48 (37.5) from the floor, including 7-for-19 (36.8) from three-point range.
 
Rutgers-Camden returns to action Wednesday with an 8 p.m. NJAC game at Rowan University.