STOCKTON EDGED BY WIDENER 89-88

Rich Suhr

Boxscore

Richard Stockton (1-3) rallied from a nine-point deficit at halftime but could not hold on as Widener University (4-0) came back from an 11-point Stockton lead to down the Ospreys 89-88 in a thrilling home opener for Stockton.

The Pride ran out to a 46-37 lead at the break on the strength of 54% shooting. Lamar Jackson scored 12 of his 20 points and teammate Brian Smith tallied 10 of his game-high 21 in the first half to give Widener the advantage. The Ospreys fell behind by as much as 14 points before scoring the last five points of the session.

Widener began the second half by once again opening up a 14-point lead before Stockton turned around a 51-37 deficit by scoring 19 straight points to take a 56-51 advantage. DiAndre Brown (Sicklerville/Camden County Tech), Kevin Johnson (Paulsboro/ Paulsboro) and Pat Kelly (Cape May CH/Wildwood Catholic) led the surge, combining for 15 points during the onslaught.

The Ospreys extended the lead to 11 with help from Rich Suhr (Toms River/Toms River East) who scored 10 of his career-high 18 points in the second half. The Pride erased Stockton’s big lead with a 17-2 run in the last five minutes to squeeze out the victory. Rob McPherson scored the go-ahead bucket for Widener with 51 seconds remaining to make the score 86-85 and the Pride held on from there.

Besides Smith and Jackson, McPherson chipped in with 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds while teammate Perry Wright added 14 markers for Widener.

Led by Suhr, Stockton also had four other players score in double figures for the night. Brown added 17 points along with eight rebounds. Kelly and Bill McDonough (Spring Lake/St. Rose) chipped in with 16 apiece, including 12 for McDonough in the first half, and Johnson finished with 11. Salman Yusuff (Vineland/Vineland) pulled down a game-high nine boards for Stockton.