Montclair, NJ – Junior guard
NICKIE CARTER finished with 19 points along with four rebounds as Montclair State posted its third straight victory, beating The College of New Jersey, 53-39 at the Panzer Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon.
Senior
TRISHA PETERSON had a solid all-around game with five points, 10 rebounds and five assists as the Red Hawks (9-7, 7-4 NJAC), swept the season series from the Lions while prevailing for the third consecutive time in the all-time series. MSU, which holds a 52-35 advantage all-time, posted a 60-54 win in Ewing, NJ back on December 4.
Montclair State led 9-6 after the first quarter and pushed that to a 14-6 lead midway through the second as
JULIA SUTTON scored on a layup. Peterson later drained a three-pointer and a driving layup by Carter with 3:10 to go boosted MSU's lead to 19-10. A
KENDALL HODGES three-pointer with 19 ticks left pushed the score to 26-16, but TCNJ's Sydney Blum connected on a layup at the buzzer sending MSU into the break with a 26-18 advantage.
The Lions closed that gap by three points after the third quarter and got within 43-37 with six minutes to play in the fourth as Morgan Heller scored on a layup. Carter countered with two free throws and Sutton added a layup to boost the lead back to 47-37. Vero all but put the game away for the Red Hawks with tremendous defensive effort that included three consecutive blocks over a 26-second span.
Vero swatted away an Emily Toy attempt out of bounds and then denied Blum under the basket. The third would be the most impressive, a deflection of an Isabella Cafaro three-pointer that led to her own layup giving Montclair State a 49-37 lead with just over four minutes to play.
Vero finished with five blocks, the most by an MSU player since
KAYLA BUSH against Rowan in January 2020. She also had six points and three rebounds. Sutton added 10 with Hodges totaling seven points.
The Red Hawks are back in action on Wednesday, January 26 with a rare third in-season meeting with Ramapo College in Mahwah. The rubber-game tips off in the Bradley Center at 5:30 pm. The Roadrunners won the initial contest, 73-66 in December with Montclair winning a 55-45 non-conference decision on early January.
