MONTCLAIR, N.J. – The William Paterson women's basketball team (0-2, 0-2 NJAC) could not keep pace with the much deeper Montclair State Red Hawks (2-1, 2-0 NJAC), falling on the road 67-43 on Saturday afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• After Yakira Rosa's (Dumont, N.J./Dumont) driving layup tied the score at 7-7 midway through the first quarter, MSU closed out the period on a 15-4 run and held a comfortable 22-11 edge after 10 minutes. In the second, sophomore Brianna Smith's (Hillsdale, N.J./Pascack Valley) three-pointer capped off a 7-0 Pioneer burst to make it a five-point contest (26-21, 6:21),  but the Red Hawks would respond and grow the advantage to nine, 37-28, at the break.
• Montclair State's defense took over in the second half, limiting William Paterson to 3-for-23 (.130) shooting over the final 20 minutes to pull away with the 67-43 decision.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Allison McBride (Ringwood, N.J./Lakeland Regional) and Smith both scored a team-high 11 points, while junior Justina Cabezas (Carlstadt, N.J./Becton Regional) pulled down eight rebounds to go along with 8 points.
• MSU held a sizable margin in both rebounding (46-30) and bench scoring (35-8).

UP NEXT:

• WP travels to Rutgers-Newark Friday, Feb. 12, at 7:00 p.m.

FOLLOW THE PIONEERS:

• http://www.wpupioneers.com/socialmedia