Junior forward Jonathan Arthur (Maplewood, NJ/Columbia), the NJAC and ECAC Player of the Week had 12 points as Montclair State evened its record at 5-5 with its second straight victory.
Freshman forward Eugene Nottingham (Amityville HS) had a game-high 21 points and nine rebounds for Briarcliffe, which fell to 6-9 on the season.
The Red Hawks led for all but 26 seconds of the contest. After jumping out to an 8-2 lead, Briarcliffe used a 9-2 run of its own to take an 11-10 advantage with 13:54 to play in the first half as Nottingham drained a three pointer. However, Montclair quickly regained the lead on its next possession as Arthur scored on a layup that ignited a 21-3 run over the next six-plus minutes. Byrne scored eight of his points in the spurt, including a pair of three-pointer – the last one with 6:01 left as the Red Hawks took a 32-14 advantage.
For the second straight game, Montclair State used a strong first-half shooting performance to build a double-digit lead. The Red Hawks shot a 60.6 percent (20-of-33) from the field in the first 20 minutes to build a 53-23 lead at intermission.
Sophomore guard Maurice Torres (Summit, NJ/Summit) finished with 12 points for Montclair State, which outrebounded the Seahawks, 48-36 on the glass, including 20 offensive caroms. Sylvester had six rebounds while sophomore Enrico Younger (Jackson, NJ/Jackson) had a team-best eight to go along with six points. Donald Reid (Perth Amboy, NJ/Cardinal McCarey) had eight points as well while Charles Miller (Linden, NJ/Linden) chipped in with seven points and six rebounds.
Nottingham added three assists and four steals for Briarcliffe, which shot just 36 percent (24-of-65) from the floor, including 2-of-15 from three-point range. Anthony Crispino (Farmingdale) had nine points and seven rebounds while Stanley Shorter (Freeport) contributed eight points, six rebounds and two assists.
Montclair State is now off until the first weekend in January as the Red Hawks will travel to Bethlehem, PA to compete in the 25th Annual Greyhounds Starters Classic at Moravian College. MSU will face Salisbury University in the first round on January 6 at 6:00 pm with the consolation and championship games set for Sunday, January 7 at 1:00 and 3:00 pm, respectively.