Ewing, NJ – Stockton University (15-8, 12-4 NJAC) could not withstand a second half barrage and fell to The College of New Jersey (15-8, 12-4) 70-49 on Wednesday night. Grace Speer (Estell Manor/ACIT) led the Ospreys with 12 points on the evening.
 
Stockton jumped out to a quick lead at 9-2 with Imene Fathi (Wildwood/Wildwood) scoring six and Speer tallying another three before the Lions responded. The home team closed to 12-9 after on frame out scoring Stockton 7-3 to end the quarter.
 
TCNJ opened the second period hitting the first five markers for a 14-12 advantage until Skylar Fowlkes (Vineland /Vineland) scored four points to help Stockton regain the margin at 16-14 with 6:14 to play until half. The Ospreys could not sustain the lead as the Lions scored 10 of the final 14 points to take a 24-20 lead into the locker room that they would not relinquish.
 
The home team turned up the pressure in a pivotal third quarter as the Lions stretched the lead to 44-31 by scoring 20 markers to give TCNJ its largest advantage of the night thus far. They held Stockton to just 29.4% (514) shooting while allowing just 11 points in the frame to forge the lead after three quarters of play.
 
TCNJ continued the barrage of points in the fourth period, ballooning the lead to 50-34 before Stockton closed to 50-40 with 5:40 left in regulation. Trina Deveney-Bethea (Mays Landing/Cedar Creek) accounted for four of the six straight markers.
 
That was as close as the Ospreys would get as they could not slow the hot three-point shooting of the Lions. Stockton scored 21 points off 16 forced turnovers in the contest, but TCNJ shot an outstanding 10-19 (52.6%) from behind the arc in the second half that led to 46 points.
 
Deveney-Bethea added eight points and a team-high nine rebounds to top the team, with Fathi dishing a game-high five assists and nine points.
 
Madison Dulude (Sewell/Washington Twp.) was solid on defense with seven rebounds and a game-high five steals in the loss. Emma Morrone (Maywood/Hackensack) chipped in with nine points and seven rebounds.
 
Arianna McCleod led TCNJ with 17 points, with Grace Kowalski adding 14 markers. Isabella Cafaro and Nina Branchizio tallied 11 points each with Cafaro grabbing a game-high 10 boards for a double-double.
 
Stockton will take to the road again on Saturday when the Ospreys will take on New Jersey City in Jersey City. Game time is set for 1 pm.