Nick Koch and Matthew Solomon led the TCNJ men’s basketball team to a 79-68 win over Rutgers-Camden on Wednesday night in Ewing, New Jersey. The victory marks the Lions’ sixth consecutive win and keeps them ahead of Stockton for second place in the NJAC conference standings.
Koch scored 30 points, with 21 coming in the second half, and played all 40 minutes. Solomon contributed 19 points and 12 rebounds while holding Camden’s Cameron Downs—who is currently the league’s second-leading scorer—to just eight points on one-of-seven shooting.
The Lions started slowly, falling behind by five after six scoreless possessions. Anthony Milligan sparked a turnaround with a personal seven-point run that included a three-pointer and an assist from Solomon. Koch began his scoring nearly 12 minutes into the game, helping TCNJ take a lead they would maintain through halftime at 34-27.
Rutgers-Camden narrowed the gap early in the second half and briefly took a one-point lead before TCNJ regained control. A series of plays by Solomon and Koch put TCNJ up by ten midway through the half. The Lions maintained their advantage for the remainder of the game, securing key baskets down the stretch.
According to statistics from both teams, Rutgers-Camden shot 45.3 percent overall and made nine three-pointers out of twenty-three attempts. TCNJ shot an even fifty percent from the field, including nearly sixty percent after halftime, but struggled from beyond the arc with five makes out of sixteen attempts. The Lions outscored Rutgers-Camden in points in the paint (42-24) and outrebounded them (35-24). Both teams had strong ball control; Camden recorded nineteen assists to eight turnovers while TCNJ had fourteen assists to seven turnovers.
Eric Benjamin led Rutgers-Camden with twenty-two points, while Makai Crawford added ten points along with four rebounds and four assists. Downs finished below his season average but contributed seven rebounds and three assists.
For TCNJ, Koch was eleven-for-twenty-two from the field and perfect at the free throw line on seven attempts. He also collected nine rebounds and six assists. Solomon shot six-for-nine from the floor and made seven-of-nine free throws while adding four assists and one steal.
Jonathan Okocha scored eleven points on three three-pointers for TCNJ, moving into fourteenth place all-time at TCNJ with 112 career threes made. Milligan had all nine of his points in the first half along with four rebounds and three blocked shots.
With this performance, Koch is now twelve points away from passing Scott Findlay for second place on TCNJ’s all-time scoring list at 1,668 career points. Solomon surpassed 1,100 career points during this game; he has accumulated 941 rebounds—twenty-five short of Findlay’s mark for second most in school history—and moved into seventh place all-time at TCNJ with 276 career assists after passing Greg Grant.
The win extends TCNJ’s streak against Rutgers-Camden to twenty-three games.
TCNJ will play its next game against Rutgers-Newark on Saturday night.
