Box Score
NEWARK, NJ—Sophomore forward Herb Pope dominated on the inside, posting game-high totals of 22 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots for undefeated Seton Hall in a 93-53 men's basketball win over visiting NJIT Monday night in the Prudential Center.
Pope, who made 10 of 14 shots from the field, might have had more points, except he misfired on all five of his first-half free throw attempts.
He was supported by junior guard Jeremy Hazell, who scored 21 points. Jamel Jackson came off the bench for 15 points, all on 5-for-12 shooting from three-point range, and senior guard Eugene Harvey added 10 points, all in the second half. Harvey also made a game-high four steals.
NJIT's leader was Isaiah Wilkerson, who scored 14 points, while freshman Chris Flores picked up 10 points, also all in the second half.
The top rebounders for the Highlanders, with eight boards apiece, were freshman Nick Lopez and sophomore Sammy Schickel. Both players saw the bulk of their minutes in the second half. Each played four minutes in the first half and 13 in the second half.
Seton Hall is 5-0, while NJIT falls to 2-4.
The Highlanders, who had played seven home games in “The Rock” the previous two years and will play two more home games there later this season, made what might be the shortest “road trip” in Division I basketball, making a 1.2-mile trip downtown to visit Seton Hall, which plays its home games in the downtown Newark arena.
NJIT, which is in its fourth season of Division I competition and its first as a full member of the NCAA's highest level, faced a daunting task against Seton Hall, which is predicted by many experts to rise into the upper echelon of the Big East Conference, widely regarded as one of the top couple of conferences in college basketball.
The Highlanders led 15-14 on a Sean McCarthy layup 7:04 into the game, but Seton Hall's Jordan Theodore answered with a layup on the next possession, sparking a 6-0 run and the Pirates were on top to stay.
Still, NJIT hung in and trailed by just five, 26-21, before another Theodore bucket sparked an 11-0 run that would give the Pirates a 16-point cushion they maintained to the halftime buzzer that found them on top, 43-27.
Having outscored NJIT, 17-6, over the last eight minutes of the first half, the Pirates turned up the heat a bit more, outscoring the Highlanders, 26-6, in the first eight minutes of the second half for a 69-33 lead after a Jeremy Hazell dunk at the 12:18 mark.
“I've been in 40-point games where I just wanted to walk off in the middle of the game,” said NJIT's second-year head coach Jim Engles. “But I was proud to stand in front of our bench tonight. For the most part, I was pleased with our effort and I thought in the first half, especially, that our concentration was there and we were focused on doing what we had to do. Now, we have to work on finishing some of those plays and improving so they'll be there in the games when we have a chance to win.”
Next up for the Highlanders is a home game on Thursday at 7 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center against SUNY-Cobleskill.
