JERSEY CITY, NJ -- Grove Street decided to step up tonight and play like champions against the talented Wolfpack. They had a lot of energy, starting 2-2 from the 3-point line. The Wolfpack’s zone defense worked for a while, but Grove Street found other answers. By playing at a fast tempo, their incredible transition offense created an early 13-point lead. Wolfpack then went on a run, but struggled to get in front of Grove Street due to all the raining 3’s. Wolfpack worked hard for every bucket, but still found themselves down by as many as 20.

They needed at least one player to break out offensively in the second half. Josh Heyer led the team with 7 points while Grove Street’s offensive weapon Darien Rodriguez, who led all players with 18 points as his team was up 37-21 at halftime

In the first few minutes of the 2nd half, it looked like the Wolfpack was going to continue to get blown out, as they couldn’t get out of that double-digit deficit. Grove Street was still pushing the pace, getting good looks and knocking them down. David Stevens was huge for Grove Street on both ends of the floor with steals and pinpoint passing.

However, no one saw Wolfpack’s Tait Pirkle come storming in.

He helped his team go on a 10-0 run with 13 points in the half, including three 3-pointers, closing his team's gap to single digits.

But Grove Street just couldn’t be stopped.

Darien Rodriguez finished with 26 points, 3 assists, 3 steals and 4 rebounds in his team’s 54-49 win over Wolfpack.