Nov. 18, 2006

Box Score

NEW YORK - Saint Peter's was on fire at the start of Saturday's men's basketball game vs. New Jersey Institute of Technology and the Peacocks went on to defeat the Highlanders, 75-57.

The win gave Saint Peter's, 2-1, third place in the third annual Tyler Ugolyn Columbia Classic, hosted by Columbia University. NJIT is 2-2 in its first season of competition at the NCAA Division I level.

Saint Peter's, which played in last season's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game, got two individual double-doubles, led by junior Tim Spitler's career-best scoring and rebounding games (22 points and 12 rebounds). Fellow junior Todd Sowell had 14 points and 11 rebounds, while another junior, Raul Orta, finished with 20 points, including 17 in the first half.

The Highlanders, too, had three double-figure scorers, paced by Kraig Peters, who finished with a team-high 18 points and was named to the all-tournament team. Nesho Milosevic added 16 points and 7 rebounds, setting a new scoring high in his brief four-game career with the Highlanders, while also leading the NJIT rebounders. Senior Clayton Barker added 15 points for NJIT.

NJIT, which gained notice for winning its first two Division I games, defeating Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference members Manhattan (defending regular season champion) and Rider, finally lost to a MAAC school when it ran up against Saint Peter's.

The Peacocks, who had fallen behind big early in Friday's first-round loss to Kennesaw State, put NJIT in a similar predicament on Saturday.

Saint Peter's jumped to an 8-0 lead in the first 2:59 and extended the advantage to 24-5 after Spitler's steal and layup at the 12:47 mark.

Orta, who made five first-half three-pointers, accounted for 11 straight points in the Peacocks' early burst, getting his team's sixth through 16th points.

NJIT was unable to trim the first-half deficit below 15 over the last 13:07 and the Highlanders trailed at the break, 43-24.

After some halftime coaching adjustments and what certainly included some introspection on what had happened in the first half, the Highlanders played their best basketball of the night to start the second half.

NJIT opened, 15-5, in the first 6:49 of the second half, closing to within nine, 48-39, when Barker hit a jump shot with 13:11 left.

But Spitler scored on a driving layup and free throw 38 seconds later, pushing the Saint Peter's lead back to 12. That traditional three-point play sparked an 8-0 run, pushing the lead back to 17 points and the Peacocks led by at least 13 points over the last 8:45 of the game.

For the Highlanders, Milosevic scored 12 of his 16 points and got four of his seven rebounds in the second half, never letting up, despite the deficit. Peters had nine points in each half and Barker scored nine points after the break.

NJIT, which played its first four games from last Saturday to this one, will be off until Monday, November 27 at 7 pm, when it hosts yet another MAAC opponent, Siena. That game in Fleisher Athletic Center will be the first of two this season against Siena for the Highlanders, who will visit Albany, NY, to take on the Saints on January 23.