JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The New Jersey City University women's basketball team entered Saturday, Feb. 10, locked in a three-way tie atop the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) regular-season standings, along with The College of New Jersey and Stockton University, with each squad sitting at 12-4 in NJAC play. The Gothic Knights, who won the first regular-season title in program history in 2022-23 with a 14-4 record, were in absolute need of a victory today at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center (JMAC) against Stockton in order to create some separation in hopes of back-to-back titles. On Coach Charlie Brown Court — and on Senior Day no less — the Green and Gold easily dispatched the Ospreys 76-60 and, for the time being, sit alone atop the NJAC standings with one game remaining.

Prior to tip off, the Gothic Knights (16-7, 13-4 NJAC) honored three of its student-athletes during the pre-game senior ceremony — Alex Sams (Burlington City, N.J./Burlington City), Dayjah Anderson (East Orange, NJ/Newark Tech) and Jimmirah Johnson (Prospect Park, N.J./International).
 
Once action began at the JMAC against Stockton (15-9, 12-5 NJAC), it was the Ospreys that went up early on by four. NJCU tied it up moments later, however, and then the squads began to trade ties and leads. Then, with the Ospreys up 9-8 with 4:20 to go in the first, the Gothic Knights exploded for a 9-0 run to close out the quarter up by eight at 17-9 — Anderson scored a couple of buckets, while rookie guard Na'tori Postell (Passaic, N.J./Passaic Arts & Science Charter) drained a three and senior forward Sarah Edmond (Bloomfield, NJ/Bloomfield) added a lay-in of her own.

Most of the second quarter actually belonged to Stockton, who cut the Gothic Knights' lead all the way down to two at 22-20 with 3:37 remaining in the half. But then sophomore guard Elyssa Russo (Teaneck, N.J./Teaneck) and senior guard Damaris Rodriguez (Secaucus, N.J./Secaucus) drained back-to-back threes to stretch it back out to an eight-point game with 1:48 to go. The Ospreys again chipped away, however, and made it a three-point game with 33 seconds left. Junior forward Kenya Wagner (Holmdel, N.J./Holmdel) closed out the half with a bucket to give NJCU a 32-27 advantage at the break.

Once the third began, Stockton again cut it down to four at 34-30 with 8:46 on the clock. At that point, NJCU officially took control — the home team went on a 12-1 run to go up by 15 points at 46-31 with 4:55 left in the quarter. Rodriguez had five of those points, while Anderson chipped in five. The Gothic Knights eventually used a couple of shorter runs to go up by a game-high 20 on several occasions before the Ospreys cut it back down to 15 to end the third at 60-45.

The Green and Gold went up by 19 thanks to back-to-back buckets for Rodriguez and Edmond to start the fourth and then the Gothic Knights proceeded to maintain that advantage for the remainder of the day before coming away with the 16-point, 76-60 victory. Depending on the remaining outcomes for TCNJ and Stockton, NJCU now looks to continue its current seven-game winning streak next week with eyes on the program's second straight NJAC regular-season title.

Highlights:
- For the second straight game, Rodriguez scored 20-plus points and led all scorers, this time with 22 points to go with a game-best 10 assists for her second double-double in the last three games. She also led all players with four steals.
- Anderson finished with 16 points, while sophomore guard Tahirah Kelley (Linden, N.J./Immaculate Conception) chipped in 12 to go with a game-high eight rebounds.
- In her return to the lineup for the first time since November, Johnson finished with six points and five boards over 16 minutes in the start.
- Always contributing all over the floor, Edmond pulled down seven boards and chipped in four points. She also blocked a game- and career-high four shots.

Up Next:
As mentioned, the Gothic Knights will hopefully look to lock in their second straight NJAC regular-season championship and the #1 overall seed in the upcoming conference tournament when they take on Rutgers-Camden on the road on Wednesday night, Feb. 14, with tip-off against the Scarlet Raptors scheduled for 6:00 p.m. in Camden, N.J. However, prior to that, NJCU has a big-time non-conference clash set for tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, Feb. 11, down in Fredricksburg, Va., against perennial NCAA contender the University of Mary Washington of the Coast to Coast Conference (C2C).