• Home
• Sports

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP - Getting to a national title game has its rewards such as more attention and top-caliber players wanting to play for the team.

But being the fifth-ranked team in the country also comes with a drawback.

Every team, every time will bring its top game, which the Richard Stockton College's men's basketball team learned Sunday afternoon in its season opener.

The Ospreys lost 68-67 on a buzzer-beater to Baruch College from New York at the Stockton Athletic Center.

Baruch's Chris Beauchamp hit a 3-pointer with time running out on an inbounds play for the game-winner.

"There's a target on you," Stockton coach Gerry Matthews said. "People are going to come with their 'A' game. You have to be ready to rise to that."

Stockton (0-1) lost in the NCAA Division III national championship last season and is ranked fifth by D3hoops.com in its preseason poll.

Baruch (1-0) knew both coming into the game and knew a win would give credibility to its program, which made the NCAA tournament last season.

"I saw an opening, threw up a Hail Mary and it went in," said Beauchamp, who had a team-high 14 points.

"This is going to set up our season for us. We have a high standard now for the whole season."

Stockton had a four-point lead, 67-63, with two minutes left on senior Santini Lancioni's 3-pointer. He finished with 14 points. Senior Omar Smith had a game-high 15 points and eight rebounds.

Middle Township graduate Michael Farrow (14 points, six steals) stole the ball but gave it back just 10 seconds later.

This series stood out for Matthews. Stockton forced a pass down low and turned it over.

"On one pass we threw a lob pass inside and turned the ball over," Matthews said. "We gave the ball right back and got nothing out of that possession. We didn't even get to kill the clock. They went right down the floor and scored."

Baruch's Sean Loftus made a short jumper with 1 minute, 15 seconds left to pull within two points, 67-65.

On Stockton's side, junior Kai Massaquoi missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw and Loftus grabbed the rebound.

After a jump ball with 2.2 seconds left, Baruch inbounded under its basket and was nearly called for a time violation.

But the Bearcats found Beauchamp in the corner.

"We did our regular out-of-bounds defensive play," Farrow said. "We had a little mix up. We still have a lot of work to do. We should have won the game, but we didn't execute."

In the first half, Stockton trailed by as much as eight points, 25-17, with 8:42 left in the first half.

The Ospreys puts together a run that was slightly misleading.

There were two fouls and coupe of missed shots over the next four minutes, but a dunk by Farrow with 4:07 left in the half gave Stockton a 33-31 lead.

"This is nothing to hang out head about," Lancioni said. "We lost early last year too. We could definitely turn it around. They were a good team."

Stockton had four new players on the court, including transfers DiAndre Brown and Pat Kelly, a Wildwood Catholic graduate.

The Ospreys are going to need a little time to get back into the type of rhythm they were accustomed to last season.

"Our problem is we don't have chemistry," Lancioni said.

"People have to find their roles. We were out of place a lot during the whole game. We have to find our spots and locations."

Contact Susan Lulgjuraj:

609-272-7187

slulgjuraj@pressofac.com

Baruch 35 33-68

Richard Stockton 35 32-67

B-Tammer 3 2-2 11, Hilaire 3 2-2 9, Beauchamp 4 2-2 14, Loftus 6 0-1 12, Kunkel 4 2-2 10, Abbatiello 3 0-0 9, Falkenhainer 1 1-2 3. Totals 24 9-11 68.

RS-Smith 7 1-1 15, Farrow 6 0-0 14, Brown 3 6-6 12, Lancioni 6 0-1 14, Massaquoi 2 0-1 5, Kelly 1 0-0 3, Haddix 2 0-0 4. Totals 27 7-9 67.

Records-Baruch 1-0, Stockton 0-1

Stockton's men's schedule

Date Opponent Time

Wednesday at Penn State Abington 7

Friday Vassar Invitational 6

Saturday Vassar Invitational 1/3

Nov. 24 vs. Widener 8

Nov. 28 vs. Brooklyn 2

Dec. 5 New Jersey City 3*

Dec. 11 King's Monarch Classic 6

Dec. 12 King's Monarch Classic 1/3

Jan. 2 Moravian Greyhound

Starters Classic 7:30

Jan. 3 Moravian Greyhound

Starters Classic 1/5:30

Jan. 6 at Rutgers-Camden 8*

Jan. 9 vs. Montclair State 3*

Jan. 11 at Hunter 6

Jan. 13 vs. Kean 8*

Jan. 16 at William Paterson 1*

Jan. 18 at Eastern 4

Jan. 20 at Rowan 8*

Jan. 23 vs. Ramapo 1*

Jan. 27 at The College of New Jersey 8*

Jan. 30 at Rutgers-Newark 8*

Feb. 6 Rutgers-Camden 1*

Feb. 10. at Kean 8*

Feb. 13 vs. Rowan 3*

Feb. 17 vs. The College of New Jersey 8*

*New Jersey Athletic Conference game

No comments have been posted. Be the first poster!

PressofAtlanticCity.com offers everyone the opportunity to comment on published stories. However, it is impractical for editors to screen all comments.
If you believe a comment is offensive, please click on the abuse-reporting link and your objection will be considered by an editor. We encourage participants to use their real names, but inoffensive screen names are acceptable. Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them.
Please post responsibly. Do not post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy.
Be polite. Don’t hate. Users who don’t play by the rules may be blocked from participating.

View our full terms of service and privacy agreement

Click here to report a comment as abusive.

You must login to post a new comment