Upper Montclair, NJ -- Junior center JASMINE BATTS (Carteret, NJ/Carteret) registered 21 points and 14 rebounds as Montclair State posted an 82-65 victory over New Jersey City University in New Jersey Athletic Conference women's basketball action at Panzer Gymnasium on Wednesday evening.

STEPHANIE ELLERBE (Pennsauken, NJ/Pennsauken) and KATHY BARBERI (Whitestone, NY/Francis Lewis each added 12 points for the Red Hawks (6-9, 3-6 NJAC), who snapped a two-game losing streak and won for just the third time in their last eight games. CRISTINA MORALES (Newark, NJ/Shabazz) finished with a career-high 14 points for the Gothic Knights (5-10, 1-8 NJAC).

Montclair State led by two at halftime, but broke the game open in the second half as it scored the first six points as part of a 10-2 run to build a 46-36 lead with 16:10 to play. Batts had four points in the spurt. The Red Hawks maintained the double-digit lead throughout most of the half and took their largest bulge at 77-58 when DIONNE FLEMING (Jersey City, NJ/St. Anthony's) buried a three-pointer with 2:47 remaining.

In a tightly-contested first half, each team managed to build six-point advantage. The Gothic Knights held leads of 9-3 and 11-5 as Morales scored on a layup with 16:05 left in the opening period. However, Montclair would come back to take the lead just over five minutes later as STEPHANIE CROLEY (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway) hit a jumper. The Red Hawks then took a 36-30 lead with 2:03 to play, but ANABEL RODRIGUEZ (Belleville, NJ/Belleville) stole an inbounds pass and hit a layup to cut the lead to four. Morales then went coast-to-coast for a layup with 25 seconds left to pull NJCU within 36-34 at intermission.