The victory proved to be bittersweet for the Cougars (14-11), who were eliminated from the NJAC Tournament race as Rutgers-Newark topped Rowan, 71-63, in Glassboro. Kean, Montclair and Rowan all finished at 8-8 in the league, but the Red Hawks (13-11) won the three-team tiebreaker by virtue of their 3-1 mark against Rowan and Kean. Montclair and will be the No. 5 seed when the tournament commences on Monday, February 21. Rowan grabbed the No. 6 seed as they swept Kean during the regular season to win that tiebreaker.
Michael Gluck (Union, NJ/Union), who was honored before the game as the lone MSU senior, finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds for MSU, which will face fourth-seeded Rutgers-Newark in the first-round at the Golden Dome. The teams split their meetings during the regular season with the Scarlet Raiders (16-9) winning at MSU, 52-49, on February 7. Montclair posted a 60-51 victory at Newark on January 29.
Kean led 37-32 at halftime and scored the first five points of the second half to build a 10-point cushion on two free throws by B.J. Hamby (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater-Raritan) with 18:23 to go. Montclair State would then chip away at the lead going on a 16-5 run over the next nine minutes to take the lead, 48-47, on a jumper by Gian Paul Gonzalez (No. Haledon, NJ/Manchester) at the 9:23 mark. Kean would regain the lead as Russell Jordan (San Antonio, TX/William H. Taft) hit a short jumper and Bryan Miller (Trenton, NJ/Trenton) sank two free throws to make the score 51-48 with 7:47 to play.
A layup by MSU’s Jamal Ford (Secaucus, NJ/Secaucus) got MSU within 51-50, however, Kean was able to restore the lead back to eight with under a minute to go. Miller began a five-point run as he converted a three-point play and Matt Horton (Paterson, NJ/Paterson Catholic) added jumper that all but sealed the game for the Cougars.
Jordan finished with 10 points off the bench for Kean, which was able to secure the win as it converted 11-of-15 at the free-throw line over the final 20 minutes. Miller finished with eight points while Tan Kesler (Adana, Turkey/Paksoy Lisesi) had six points and six rebounds.
Gonzalez had 15 points and 11 rebounds for Montclair State, which shot just 33 percent from the field (19-of-57) in the game. Quentin Demeritte (Nassau, Bahamas/Corronado, TX) added 11 points.