Men's Basketball 1/31/2009 5:05:52 PM William Paterson Sports Information

Men's Basketball Gets Back on Track, Defeats Kean 62-49

Ellis Scores 20 Points Off the Bench for Pioneers

Joseph Ellis was 3-for-6 from three and 9-for-9 from the line on his way to 20 points against the Cougars.

Box Score

WAYNE, N.J. – William Paterson (15-4, 6-3 NJAC) got back to its winning ways and snapped a two-game losing streak with a 62-49 victory against visiting Kean (11-10, 4-5 NJAC) Jan. 31.

With the victory, the Pioneers remain one game behind Montclair State (7-2) for the top spot in the New Jersey Athletic Conference's North Division. The loss, coupled with a Ramapo defeat of TCNJ (71-60), kept the Cougars in a two-way tie for second place in the South Division.

Junior guard Joseph Ellis (Newark, N.J./Newark Science) scored a game-high 20 points in 21 minutes off the bench for the Pioneers, draining three of six three-pointers and all nine attempts from the free-throw line. Senior guard Courtney Nelson (Newark, N.J./Bloomfield Tech) added 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocked shots, while sophomore guard Gabriel Paul (Hillside, N.J./Hillside) had eight tallies and four boards for William Paterson.

Junior guard Dean Hughes led the Cougars with 13 points, sophomore forward Akinwande Oshodi had 12 tallies and four rebounds, and junior guard Vinnie Darpino added seven points and a team-best five rebounds for Kean.

William Paterson built a nine-point lead by the middle of the first half, pushing ahead 20-11 after Ellis sank three free throws with 11:21 to play. Kean pulled within four a minute later, but the Pioneers entered the break ahead 34-24 thanks to a 7-2 burst to end the first period.

That advantage quickly ballooned to 16 early in the second half, thanks in part to a pair of three-pointers from junior Bobby Dunn (Garwood, N.J./Arthur L. Johnson), and the Cougars were never able to get within single digits for the remainder of the contest.

William Paterson made 11 of 22 attempts from beyond the arc, part of a 41.5 (17-41) percent overall shooting effort, and was 17-of-19 (.895) from the charity stripe. The Pioneers, who began the week first in scoring defense (57.2 ppg), second in three-point percentage defense (.242) and third in field-goal percentage defense (.368) in Division III, limited Kean to 16-of-58 (.276) shooting overall and 5-of-24 (.208) shooting from beyond the arc.

William Paterson will next play Monday, Feb. 2, at John Jay at 7:00 p.m. Kean will host Richard Stockton Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 8:00 p.m.

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