NEWARK, N.J. (Dec. 19, 2015) – The Drew University men's basketball team dropped a 73-59 decision at Rutgers-Newark in a non-conference game on Saturday afternoon.
 
Senior guard Kevin Herring II led the Rangers (4-5) in scoring with 16 points, just ahead of junior guard Joey Feinberg, who scored all of his 11 points in the second half on 5-of-8 shooting before fouling out late in the game. Freshman Nate Aldrich was Drew's leading rebounder with seven, while scoring four points and passing out an assist.
 
Despite Drew leading the first half of play for the majority of the opening 20 minutes, the Scarlet Raiders (8-3) took a 33-31 lead into the intermission. The first half was highlighted by a pair of runs that saw Drew lead by as many as six, and Rutgers-Newark by seven. Foul trouble from both ends had the teams shooting in the bonus over the final seven minutes of the period, and the Raiders capitalized with a 75% mark from the line compared to Drew's 44%.
 
The Rangers were extremely balanced on the offensive end during the first half with six players scoring at least four points and Herring II leading the way with seven. Michael-Miller had six points at the break, while Mike Klinger, Aldrich, Yonathan Napoleon and Darius Reiter all had four apiece. Reiter netted four of those points on a 3-pointer and a free throw over the final minute of play in the first half, and combined with an Aldrich jumper to put together a 6-0 run.
 
Feinberg scored his first points of the game with Drew's first bucket of the second half, and subsequently scored the next seven points for the Rangers, including a three-point play to cut a Scarlet Raiders lead to 41-38 with 15:00 minutes showing on the clock. From there, however, a few Drew miscues led to easy buckets on the other end and Rutgers-Newark took its first double-digit lead at 48-38 after a 7-0 run.
 
After a 30-second timeout, Drew suffered a cold spell from the floor, missing five straight shots before Reiter ended the streak with his second 3-pointer of the game. The Raiders would make a trey of their own to retake the 10-point lead two possessions later.
 
Rutgers-Newark would stretch its lead to 13 on two difference occasions, with Herring II and Feinberg hitting shots each time to keep the Rangers at a manageable distance. With five minutes remaining, the Raiders pushed their lead to 14 and never looked back. The lead ballooned to 18 with 3:34 remaining in the game as Rutgers-Newark again took advantage of the double-bonus with a 5-of-6 mark down the stretch.
 
Drew lost decidedly in the battle for the glass as Rutgers-Newark grabbed 43 rebounds to the Rangers' 27.  The Scarlet Raiders used 13 of those rebounds on the offensive boards to score 15 second chance points. Drew, meanwhile, had just three points when given an extra life.
 
The Rangers will now head to their homes to enjoy the holiday break before returning to action on the road at Mount Aloysius College on Dec. 30. Drew's next home game is on Tuesday, Jan. 5 as Landmark Conference play resumes against The University of Scranton.