UNION, N.J. (Feb. 7, 2024) – The New Jersey Athletic Conference regular-season schedule is dwindling down to a precious few games and the Rutgers University-Camden men's basketball team came up big in one of the biggest contests of the season here Wednesday.
 
The Scarlet Raptors rallied from an eight-point deficit early in the second half and went on to defeat Kean University, 79-73, to tie the Cougars in the NJAC standings with two games remaining before the playoff seedings. Both teams now stand at 7-9 in the NJAC, one game behind sixth-place Rutgers-Newark in the battle to reach the six-team conference playoffs.
 
Rutgers-Camden, which improves to 12-11 overall, holds the tie-breaker in head-to-head play against Kean by virtue of sweeping the two-game season series.
 
Kean, which falls to 10-13 overall, still leads the all-time series, 63-29.
 
Rutgers-Camden led a close game throughout most of the first half, but Kean scored the final eight points of the half in a 44-second span to grab a 39-33 halftime lead. The Cougars took the lead, 34-33, on a junior guard D.J. Alicea.
 
The Cougars increased their lead to 41-33 coming out of halftime before the Scarlet Raptors battled back. Rutgers-Camden finally caught Kean, 45-45, on a layup by senior guard Ethan Tarte with 14:32 remaining. The teams battled back and forth down the stretch until the Scarlet Raptors finally took the lead for good, 55-53, on another layup by Tarte with 7:45 remaining. After a foul shot by Alicea cut the margin to 55-54, Raptor sophomore Cherif Kanoute canned a big three-pointer to pad the lead to 57-54. Kean cut the margin to 57-56 before sophomore forward Cameron Downs and junior forward Jordany Pierre hit back-to-back layups to give the Raptors a 61-56 lead.
 
Kean scored the next three points to slice the gap to 61-59 before Kanoute hit a jumper and two foul shots to widen the margin to 65-59. Although Kean cut its deficit to 69-67 on a three-pointer by Alicea with 2:55 remaining, Rutgers-Camden hung on down the stretch for its big win. Sophomore guard Jordan Trusty-Smith clinched the game by scoring four of the final six points from the foul line.
 
Kanoute finished with 17 points to tie his Raptor career high, which was set against Stockton on Jan. 24. He added 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, tying his Raptor high accomplished two previous times.
 
Pierre netted 15 points and added eight boards, while Downs scored 12 and Tarte added 10. Freshman guard/forward Keion Elliott tied his career high with a team-leading four assists.
 
Alicea scored a game-high 26 points for the Cougars, while junior guard Ethan Stith netted 14 points, fifth-year guard JD Daniels scored 13 and junior guard Justin Morton notched 10. Stith added a game-high five assists.
 
Rutgers-Camden won the battle of the boards, 38-28, and shot 29-for-55 (52.7 percent) from the field. The Raptors went 8-for-20 (40.0) from three-point range and 13-for-19 (68.4) from the foul line.
 
Kean shot 25-for-61 (41.0) from the floor, 4-for-12 (33.3) from three-point range and 19-for-24 (79.2) from the line.
 
The Scarlet Raptors return to NJAC action Saturday with a 3 p.m. home game against William Paterson University. Rutgers-Camden will honor departing guards Gavin Henry and Tarte in a Senior Day celebration. Rutgers-Camden closes its regular season with a home game on Wednesday, Feb. 14, against New Jersey City University.