Photo Courtesy of Montclair State Athletics

Montclair State completes season sweep against Ramapo

The Montclair State Red Hawks (10-6) took on the Ramapo Roadrunners (4-12) Wednesday night at the Bradley Center in Mahwah.

In their first matchup in roughly 50 days, the Red Hawks defeated Ramapo, 94-78. While the margin was 16 points, this matchup was much closer.

Both teams exchanged eight-point leads in the first 15 minutes of action, but they quickly disintegrated. Montclair State forward Steve Breeman, who led all players in scoring with 20 points, hit a short jumper going into the half to give the Red Hawks a two-point lead at 40-38.

The following ten minutes was a replay of the first twenty minutes of action until Montclair went on a steady 7-0 run finished off by an Irving Callendar IV three-point play. Callander was right behind Breeman in scoring, finishing with 19 points on the night.

The Roadrunners quickly cut that lead back down to two points, but then, Red Hawks freshman guard Mike Jackson and Breeman connected on back-to-back threes to boost the lead back up to eight points with five minutes left to play. Ramapo head coach Chuck McGreen immediately called timeout and was enraged by his players leaving Breeman open on the perimeter for that shot. Breeman was four-of-five shooting from downtown.

Montclair State clung to that eight-point lead for the remainder of the game, playing possession ball and converting on all their necessary foul shots to secure the victory.

Ramapo drops to 3-9 in conference play as their season struggles continue. On the other hand, Montclair State has won three consecutive conference games and has improved to 7-5 in conference play.

The Roadrunners will stay put as they host Kean University (10-7) on Saturday afternoon. The Red Hawks will head home as they get ready to take on the number one team in the conference, Stockton University (15-3), Saturday afternoon.