Box Score

MONTCLAIR, N.J. – The No. 22/24 William Paterson women's basketball team (18-3, 8-1 NJAC) suffered its first New Jersey Athletic Conference loss and saw its 16-game winning streak come to an end with a 72-61 loss at Montclair State (10-9, 6-3 NJAC) Jan. 31.

The two teams entered the locker room deadlocked at 27-27, and the first seven minutes of the second stanza saw nine lead changes before the Red Hawks put together an 11-0 run to take a 48-38 edge with 9:55 remaining. William Paterson's 8-2 burst made it a four-point contest (46-50, 8:28), but that was as close as the Pioneers would get, as Montclair State answered by scoring 15 of the next 16 tallies (47-65, 3:30).

Senior Luci Custis (Roselle, N.J./Abraham Clark) led the William Paterson offense with 13 points and four assists. Freshman Elisa Brown (Norwalk, Conn./Norwalk) posted 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Pioneers.

WPU suffered from a poor shooting night, making just 32.4 (23-71) percent of its attempts from the field and 53.3 (8-15) percent of its free-throw attempts. Montclair made almost twice as many free throws as the Pioneers attempted (26-33, .788), as three William Paterson starters were whistled for two first-half fouls. Two of them finished with four personals, while one of WPU's substitutes fouled out.

William Paterson was ranked 22nd by USA Today/Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and 24th by d3hoops.com in this week's national polls.

The Pioneers will finish a two-game road swing Saturday, Feb. 3, at Richard Stockton at 4:00 p.m.