NEWARK, NJ – Junior forward
Phil Barnes netted six of his 19 points during the overtime session, including the go-ahead basket with 1.7 remaining, to lead Rutgers-Newark to a thrilling, 91-89, come from behind victory over The Stevens Institute of Technology during the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Metro Division-III Championship.
NCAA Box Score and Play-By-Play
2009 ECAC Metro Championship Bracket (PDF)
Rutgers-Newark will travel to New York University on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Coles Sports Center for the tournament’s semifinal round. Top-seeded Montclair State, a 79-67 winner over Maritime in their opening round game, will be at fourth-seeded Lehman, a 76-63 winner over Merchant Marine tonight, at 4:30 on Saturday in the other semifinal contest. Should the Raiders win on Saturday, they would host the championship game in The Golden Dome at 7 p.m. on Sunday.
Barnes, who equaled a career-high with 16 rebounds, notched his second straight double-double -- his fourth of the season -- in the win, while fellow juniors
Deshawn Singleton and James Johnson tallied a game-high 20 points apiece. Junior guard
Tim Smith added 19 points and four rebounds to round out the quartet of Scarlet Raiders in double-figures.
Down 3-2 in the early going, Singleton netted eight straight points for the Scarlet Raiders, sparking a 15-6 run over a seven and a half minute stretch as Rutgers-Newark opened up a 17-9 advantage at the 12:03 mark.
Stevens responded with a 17-7 run of their own over the next six minutes of action to take a 26-24 lead at 6:40 following a pair of
Michael Baker free-throws.
Barnes would momentarily quell the Stevens’ tide, pulling the Scarlet Raiders even with a jumper on Rutgers-Newark’s ensuing possession, but the Ducks would embark on a 9-3 run to take a 35-29 advantage just shy of the three and a half minute mark.
Undeterred, Singleton and the Scarlet Raiders mounted a 7-0 run of their own, capped off by a
David Cherry layup at 2:18, to regain the lead, but the Ducks out would outscore their Rutgers-Newark counterparts 6-1 down the stretch to take a 41-37 lead into the intermission.
The Stevens hot streak would continue early in the second half with the Ducks netting 11 of the first 15 points of the stanza to take a 52-41 advantage.
Johnson would end the Scarlet Raider dryspell with a triple at 14:00, but Stevens’ freshman guard
Michael Cutri would connect on a three on Ducks’ next possession to push the lead back up to 11.
Down 12 at 9:20 mark, Singleton would spark a 6-0 Scarlet Raider run with four straight points, pulling Rutgers-Newark within six, but five straight points from Ducks’ senior guard
Virgil Gray would up the lead to 11 with 6:09 remaining.
The Scarlet Raiders would slice the lead to seven after a Singleton layup at 4:13, but an
Anthony Passalacqua triple on Stevens’ ensuing possession would once again push the Duck lead into double digits.
Johnson would lead another Scarlet Raider rally netting six of the game’s next seven points to trim the Rutgers-Newark deficit to five, before a
Bryan Franklin upped the Stevens lead to seven with just 1:16 to go.
Still trailing by seven with just 40 seconds left, Barnes connected on a layup to cut the lead to five. Cutri would connect on just one of two free throws on the ensuing Ducks possession before a Johnson layup pulled the Scarlet Raiders within four.
Baker would continue Stevens’ struggles from the charity stripe managing to make just one free throw before a Smith layup at the 25 second mark cut the Duck lead to three. After a one for two showing from the stripe from Franklin on the Ducks next possession, Smith struck again, laying the ball in to trim the margin to two with just 17 seconds remaining.
Still down two with under 10 seconds remaining, Barnes stole a Cutri inbounds pass before driving the lane and knotting the game at 80 with 1.5 ticks left on the clock, forcing overtime.
Barnes would continue to lead the Scarlet Raiders in the extra session, netting the first four Rutgers-Newark points in the frame.
With the game tied at 84, Smith knocked down a free-throw to give the Scarlet Raiders its first lead since the 2:18 mark in the first half. Singleton would convert a three-point play on Rutgers-Newark’s next possession to give the Scarlet Raiders an 88-84 edge before Cutri sliced the lead to one with a triple with 47 seconds left.
A Singleton free-throw would give Rutgers-Newark a two-point lead with 38 seconds remaining before a Baker layup once again knotted the see-saw affair setting up the game’s final sequence.
With the clock ticking down, Smith would drive the lane on the Scarlet Raiders’ final possession, missing on a runner from the right side, but a Barnes tip-in with 1.7 seconds remaining would cap off the Scarlet Raiders frantic comeback win.
Baker and Cutri lead all Ducks scorers with 17 points apiece. Gray added 16 points and four assists in the loss, while Franklin and Passalacqua each finished with 11.
The overtime win was the Raiders' first in four chances this season.
The Scarlet Raiders have faced the NYU just once during head coach
Joe Loughran’s eight year tenure, having lost to NYU, 82-72 in the semifinal round of the 2006-07 ECAC Division III Metro Championship.