Senior guard Jamal Ford (Secaucus, NJ/Secaucus) added 18 points and seven rebounds for the Red Hawks, who improved to 2-1 on the season. Mark Washington (East Orange, NJ/West Side) had 21 points for the Gothic Knights, who fell to 1-2 on the season and were playing their first NJAC regular-season contest since defeating the Red Hawks 80-78 in February, 2004. NJCU, which won the league title in 2004, returned to the NJAC this season following a one-year hiatus as an independent.
Gonzalez, who added nine rebounds and two assists, played all 40 minutes and broke his own MSU single-game mark of 17 set last season against Kean. Gonzalez also shared the mark with Pete Capitano, who ironically set the record against Jersey City State (now NJCU) in December, 1962.
In the back-and-forth affair, NJCU led 41-39 at halftime, but the Red Hawks would regain the lead for good as Garan Dickson (Maplewood, NJ/Columbia) scored on a layup with 16:30 to play to make the score, 45-43. From there MSU would build a 51-43 advantage on two free throws by Gonzalez, only to see the Gothic Knights cut the deficit to 53-51 as James Kaiser (Stewartville, NJ/Columbia) sank a free throw with 10:47 remaining. MSU would get the lead back up to eight again, however a three-pointer by Charles Coles (Hillside, NJ/Hillside) made the score 66-63 with 6:28 left.
Ford, who had 14 points in the second half, scored five straight to restore the lead to 73-65 with 4:54 to play and after NJCU pulled within six, Gonzalez hit four consecutive free throws to give MSU a 79-69 lead with just over two minutes to play.
Jonathan Arthur (Maplewood, NJ/Columbia) had 13 points and eight rebounds for MSU, which got seven points, five rebounds and three assists from Elliot Solop (Colonia, NJ/John F. Kennedy). Montclair State shot 56 percent from the field (28-of-50) and was 30-of-38 (79 percent) at the free throw line while outrebounding the Gothic Knights, 44-24.
Coles finished with 14 points for New Jersey City, which also got 10 points from Rob Freeney (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway). NJCU shot 47 percent from the field (32-of-68), but was hampered at the charity stripe connecting on just 8-of-21 attempts.
Montclair State returns to action on Wednesday, November 30 as meet backyard rival William Paterson in Wayne at 8:00 pm. New Jersey University is back on the court the same day and time at home against Rutgers University-Newark.