News Release

Montclair, NJ — Senior forward Gian Paul Gonzalez (North Haledon, NJ/Manchester) scored 21 points and Jamal Ford (Secaucus, NJ/Secaucus) and Jonathan Arthur (Maplewood, NJ/Columbia) each added 17 and 19, respectively as Montclair State picked up a much-needed victory with a 77-68 victory over The College of New Jersey in NJAC Men’s Basketball action at Panzer Gymnasium on Wednesday evening.

The win was big for the Red Hawks, who improved to 9-8 in the league, moving into a tie for the final spot in the upcoming NJAC Tournament. MSU (13-11 overall), which picked up its 999th program victory, is tied with Rutgers-Newark and Ramapo for the final spot. The NJAC Tournament begins on Tuesday, February 21.

Scott Findlay (Long Valley, NJ/West Morris Central) had a game-high 22 points for the Lions (17-7), who fell a game behind William Paterson for the top spot and into a three-way tie for second place with New Jersey City and Richard Stockton. The Lions, now 11-6 in the conference, were also swept by Montclair State this season.

In a solidly-played game that had just 16 total turnovers, Montclair State pulled out the win as Gonzalez, the nation’s No. 4 scorer, put in 19 points over the final 20 minutes. After the Red Hawks got up by as many as seven in the second half, TCNJ came back to tie the game as Bobby Davison (Princeton, NJ/Princeton) scored on a layup to knot the contest at 52-52 with 10:33 to play. MSU would quickly put the lead back to five as Garan Dickson (Maplewood, NJ/Columbia) drained a three-pointer and Maurice Torres (Summit, NJ/Summit) finished off a break for a 57-52 advantage.

New Jersey would get the lead back to three twice and trailed by four, 67-63 with 3:15 to go, however Gonzalez hit two free throws and Dickson sank a short jumper from the left side to put the Red Hawks up 71-63 with 2:06 remaining.

Gonzalez added five rebounds and three assists for the Red Hawks, who shot 54 percent (28-of-52) from the field, including 9-of-20 from three-point range. Ford, one of four MSU seniors playing in their final home game, added nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Arthur had seven rebounds and three assists. Torres finished with eight points, including a pair of three-pointers to give him 55 on the season, a new MSU single-season record. Torres surpassed the mark of 54 set by Michael Yearwood in 2001.

Jason Stallworth (Toms River, NJ/Monsignor Donovan) had 14 points, four rebounds and five assists for the Lions, who shot well from the floor (27-of-56 / 48 percent), but were outrebounded, 33-26 in the game. Dan DeSerio (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) had 12 points while Matt Diamond (Ringwood, NJ/Lakeland) added 11. Davison had six points and seven rebounds while Findlay (four rebounds) boosted his career point total to 1,636 which is already second all-time at TCNJ.

Both teams close out their NJAC slates on Saturday. Montclair State will visit Kean University at 3:00 pm while TCNJ returns home to Packer Hall for a 1:00 pm matchup with New Jersey City University.