UNION, NJ – Grace Marshall scored 12 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter and Dakota Adams kicked in a game-high 19 points to lead Rowan to a 68-58 win over Kean in the semifinals of the 2023 New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament Wednesday evening.

The third-seeded Profs advance to the NJAC Championship Game this Saturday at 7:30 at top-seeded NJCU. The Gothic Knights outlasted fourth-seeded TCNJ in overtime, 78-74, in Wednesday's other semifinal.

Marshall hit a career-best 12-of-13 from the free-throw line including a 10-of-11 effort in the final frame as Rowan heads back to the conference final for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

Adams was 8-for-15 from the floor while adding eight rebounds, three assists, and a pair of steals.

For Kean, Shannon McCoy had 17 points while teammate Kayla Anderson scored 10 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

The first quarter ended on a 5-0 Rowan spurt to help take a 15-12 lead. In the second, the teams went through three lead changes and three ties as the home Cougars held a 29-26 edge at halftime.

Kean then opened the second half on an 11-2 run capped with two at the line from McCoy for its largest lead of the game (40-28). After that, the Profs responded with a huge 14-2 stretch over a three-minute span. A big three from Reagan Russo tied things up at 42-42 with 2:27 left in the third.

In the fourth, Marshall's two at the stripe tied it up at 48-48 with 6:45 left. Now tied at 50-50, Kate Herlihy hit the first of two from the line, with the second miss snared by Marshall, who found Herlihy for a floater in the paint for a three-point edge. Later in the stanza, Adams netted four-points in a row, the latter off a steal and easy layin for a 57-52 score and force a Kean timeout.

Marshall later was fouled on a three-point attempt with 1:50 left where she hit all three attempts to stretch the advantage to 63-56 and help seal the outcome.