Box score
NEWARK, NJ—Junior guard Alex Zampier fired in 18 points, leading four double-figure scorers as visiting Yale exploded past NJIT, 80-51, in Wednesday night men's college basketball at the Prudential Center.
Zampier was one of four starters to reach double-figure scoring for Yale, followed by sophomore guard Porter Braswell (14 points), senior forward Travis Pinick (13) and senior forward Ross Morin (10). The only starter in single-digits, sophomore Garrett Fiddler, added seven points and led his team on the boards with seven rebounds.
NJIT's captain Gary Garris a regular bright spot in his first season for the Highlanders, led all scorers (19 points) and rebounders (10) Wednesday night.
It was the second straight game in which the hard-working junior led all scorers and rebounders with a double-double. He made six of nine shots from the field (3-4 on three-pointers) and four of five free throws against Yale.
Freshman Isaiah Wilkerson added 15 points for NJIT and has scored at least 11 in each of the last five games. He has appeared in six games total since joining the team on December 20.
Yale, which has had an enigmatic season, started slowly, managing just 16 points through the first 14:32. But the Bulldogs poured in 64 points over the remaining 25:28 to become the second NJIT opponent to reach the 80-point mark this season.
The only other NJIT opponent to crack 80 was St. John's in an 82-54 win nearly a month ago on December 8. Indeed, only five of NJIT's 14 opponents before Wednesday night even scored 70 points against the Highlanders, who had been allowing just 63.6 points per game.
Yale was hard to read based on its previous results. The Bulldogs were 3-9, with a 31-point loss to Vermont, which beat NJIT by 26 and a nine-point loss to Wagner, which defeated the Highlanders by 10.
On the other hand, the Bulldogs had strong efforts against teams from power conferences, including an eight-point loss at Stanford the Pac-10, a three-point loss at Alabama of the SEC and a two-point win at Oregon State of the Pac-10.
For the first 15 minutes against NJIT, Yale looked like the team that owned similar results to those of the Highlanders against the likes of Vermont and Wagner. For the remainder of the game, the Bulldogs looked like the team that had more than held its own on the road against the big boys.
Neither team had led by more than three when NJIT's Gary Garris produced the game's fifth tie at 16-16 on a three-pointer with 4:58 left in the first half.
Yale's Morin answered with a jump shot in the paint, breaking the tie and giving his team the lead for good just 22 seconds later. Morin's tiebreaker sparked a 17-4 Bulldog run to the break that left them with a 33-20 halftime lead.
Zampier scored 12 of his points in the opening 20 minutes to pace Yale. Meanwhile, NJIT got all of its 20 first-half points from just two people—Garris (11 points) and Wilkerson (9).
Yale made six of its seven shots from the field in the 17-4 closing spurt after shooting 6-for-22 (27 percent) in the first 15 minutes. Combining the 6-for-7 to close the first half with its 19-for-30 in the second half, Yale made 25 of its last 37 field goal attempts (68 percent) over the last 25 minutes. The Bulldogs piled up 47 second-half points.
NJIT continued to play without two sophomore guards who had combined for 23 starts through the team's first 14 games. Jheryl Wilson remained out for a second game since sustaining a concussion in the Lehigh game on New Year's Eve.
And Brendon Lyn, who hurt his foot against Wagner on December 28, also did not play. He missed the Lehigh game, came back and appeared in the first half at Vermont and then sat out the second half of that game and all of the Yale game.
The Highlanders, who are in a stretch that will see them play three Ivy League schools in four games, will visit Columbia for a 7 pm game on Friday. NJIT head coach Jim Engles spent five years as an assistant at Columbia immediately before taking his current job with the Highlanders in April of 2008.
