GLASSBORO, NJ -
James Johns, Jr.,
Liech Kong and
CJ Mundell all scored double figures in their Rowan debuts to lead the Profs to an 80-69 win over Wilkes in the men's basketball season opener for both teams, as new head coach
Rob DePersia recorded his first career victory.
Johns scored 21 and grabbed five rebounds, Kong was 6-for-12 from the field to score 15 points and Mundell shot 5-for-7 from the field, and 2-for-2 from three-point range.
Khamai Orange had 12 points as he shot 4-for-9 and
Cairo Rivera scored 10 points in his first game as a Prof.
The Profs were on fire from the perimeter, hitting 70 percent of their three-point attempts in the first half, while finishing with an 11-for-19 effort (58 percent) and converted 52 percent from the floor. Rowan also notched 18 assists and had 10 steals in the victory.
Rowan built up a double-digit lead early in the second half and was up by 16, 53-37, after a dunk by Rivera at 15:58. The Profs stretched it to 20, 60-40, on a dunk by Johns with 14 minutes remaining.
With the Profs up, 62-42, Wilkes made a run, outscoring the Profs, 17-5, to cut the deficit to 67-59. The Colonels kept the run going and were within, 68-61, with 7:15 to play, but Mundell converted a three-point play and Kong hit a layup to build the lead back up to 10. Wilkes came within seven points one more time, with 5:18 remaining, but the teams went scoreless for the next two minutes and Rivera's layup gave Rowan a 77-67 lead with 2:29 left and sealed the win
Rowan came out strong and took a 7-0 lead and expanded it to 12-4 in the first five minutes. An 8-0 run, with five from Kong, gave Rowan its biggest lead of the half, 32-21, with seven minutes remaining. With four minutes to go, Wilkes scored seven straight to close the gap and a three-pointer at the buzzer cut Rowan's lead to 38-33 at halftime.
DePersia, a 2019 alumnus, is the 14th head coach in Profs' history after spending seven years at the Division I level. He worked for a total of five seasons with the Villanova University basketball program, including two with Naismith Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright, while also gaining experience at Fordham University, and most recently, at the University of New Haven.
A four-year starter and three-year captain for the Profs from 2015 to 2019, DePersia earned All-NJAC Honorable Mention in 2017 and 2019. In his senior year, he and his twin brother, Nick, were double-digit scorers who played a key role in leading the Profs to the 2019 NJAC Championship.
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The Profs are home again on Wednesday, November 11 in the first basketball doubleheader of the year as they host Eastern at 7:30 p.m., following the Rowan women's basketball team taking on Brooklyn at 5:30 p.m.
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