Dec. 3, 2007

Box Score

EASTON, PA - Lafayette set the tone early, built a big halftime lead and went on to defeat visiting NJIT, 81-56, in Monday night men's basketball matchup in the Allan P. Kirby Sports Center.

NJIT's junior forward Nesho Milosevic led all scorers with 15 points and his nine rebounds were also game-high. The nine rebounds left him one short in his bid for consecutive double-doubles, having scored 18 points and pulled an NJIT Division I-record 16 rebounds over the weekend in Maine.

Senior captain Kraig Peters scored 14 points for the Highlanders while also grabbing six rebounds, a personal season high.

Lafayette, which won its fourth in a row to go to 5-2 on the season, was led by senior guard Bilal Abdullah's 14 points. The only other double-figure scorer for the Leopards was sophomore guard Jeff Kari, who came off the bench for 12 points.

Senior forward Ted Detmer, another reserve, was the top rebounder for Lafayette, pulling down six rebounds in 14 minutes.

Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon gave plenty of time to his bench players, as Abdullah, a starter, played just 20 minutes in the game, five in the second half. Ten different Leopards played at least 14 minutes in the game and only one--guard Michael Gruner played as many as 30 minutes.

NJIT scored first on a layup by Dan Stonkus, assisted by Brendon Lyn 1:06 into the game, but Lafayette responded with 15 straight points, capped by Andrew Brown's second three-pointer of the game, making it 15-2 at the 15:16 mark.

Peters broke the run for the Highlanders on a bucket with 14:56 showing on the clock, but Brown came back 11 seconds later to hit another three-pointer.

Brown, a junior, played just seven minutes, but scored nine points, connecting on three of four three-point tries. Last season in Newark, he scored a game-high 20 points, shooting 6-for-8 on three-pointers to key a 76-57 Lafayette win.

Down, 18-4, NJIT rallied with a three-pointer by Justin Garris and a driving layup by Peters that cut the deficit to 18-9 with 13:33 left in the half. But Detmer made two free throws 13 seconds later and Lafayette's lead went to double figures for the rest of the game.

The Leopards eventually built a 41-19 halftime lead, including a buzzer-beating heave by Deirunas Visockas for Lafayette's seventh three-point basket of the half.

Already in control, Lafayette snuffed out any NJIT comeback hopes by scoring the first 10 points of the second half, the last six coming on two Jeff Kari treys in a matter of 20 seconds at 17:40 and 17:20.

The Highlanders have two days off before a historic game for the program on Thursday at 7 pm. NJIT will host Army in NJIT's first-ever game in the Prudential Center in downtown Newark.