This past Saturday, Feb. 15, Rowan men’s basketball celebrated Senior Day by honoring their four seniors: Khalif Meares, Jamir Spivey, Drew Amos, and Danny Fleming. A sluggish first half kept the Profs from ever gaining momentum, falling short 70-67 against the Rutgers-Newark Scarlet Raiders. 

Meares put on a spectacle in his last game playing inside Esbjornson Gymnasium, scoring 29 points on 10-16 shooting while also racking up eight steals as well. Rowan’s next leading scorer was Tyrese Myrick with 12 points. 

“It was Senior Day, my last game playing in Esby. I just wanted to go out with a bang. It didn’t go how I wanted but performance wise, I had to come out here and put on a show for the fans, my family, my coaches. Knowing I won’t play here again, it was just like, ‘I just gotta come out here and play,’” Meares said. 

Despite Meares’ performance, the Profs fell flat in key aspects of the game. The team continued to struggle from the perimeter, shooting just 3-for-17 from deep. They also had to face a physical Rutgers-Newark team that had 16 second-chance points compared to Rowan’s seven.

“The perimeter stuff doesn’t worry me as much. I think we allowed Newark’s physicality to bother us,” head coach Eric Brennan said. “It’s happened before and it didn’t allow us to get into what we wanted to get into, too much one-on-one play, not enough ball movement. I think correcting those things and also giving equally as tough effort on defense as Newark gave us.” 

The mentality regarding perimeter shooting for Myrick aligns with Brennan, as confidence is key to getting over shooting slumps. 

“Just keep shooting, onto the next shot,” Myrick said. 

Despite their struggles, the Profs found themselves with an opportunity to squeeze out a win late in the fourth quarter in a situation that has mirrored their past few games. Down 69-67 with 15 seconds left, an untimely turnover gave the ball back to the Scarlet Raiders, and subsequently, Meares’ last-second three-pointer to tie the game fell short. 

Despite the loss, Rowan finds some relief in the fact that they have officially clinched a spot in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) postseason tournament, due to a superior conference record over the New Jersey City University (NJCU) Gothic Knights. 

The Profs still feel the urgency to perform well in their final regular season matchup against the Stockton Ospreys, one of the premier teams in the NJAC whom they could find themselves matched up against in the postseason. 

“You want to go into the playoffs with a win. You always want to win when you’re at Stockton regardless. I told the guys yesterday, ‘We gotta get back to winning for winning’s sake.’ Get that feeling back. Every time you play a game there is a purpose,” Brennan said. 

“We can’t just go in there and bulls*** around, so we gotta go in there and play because we have to go into playoffs with a win,” Meares said. 

Meares also reflected on his time here at Rowan University after starting his career at Harcum Community College in Pennsylvania.

“It’s fun, being at a university. It’s my second year here. I scored 1,000 [points] on Wednesday, so it’s like, everything’s coming along,” Meares said. “My guys, they support me whenever I need them, and I support them whenever they need me. As long as I know they got me, I got them.”

The Profs will hit the road and head to Galloway to face off against the Stockton Ospreys on Wednesday, Feb. 19 for their final regular season matchup. Their opponent for the NJAC playoffs will be revealed shortly after their game, with the quarterfinals beginning on Saturday, Feb. 22.

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