Box score
NEWARK, NJ—Visiting Utah Valley built a comfortable 14-point halftime lead and senior center Robyn Fairbanks scored 30 points for the Wolverines in a 70-58 women's basketball win over NJIT Thursday night in the Prudential Center.
Fairbanks, who came in averaging 25.5 points and 10.6 rebounds per game, shot 12-for-15 from the field and 5-for-6 at the foul line, while grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds in just 22 minutes of action against NJIT.
Junior swing player Julie McMurray, who averages 18.6 points per game, added 22 points for Utah Valley Thursday. She scored 18 of her points against the Highlanders to help the Wolverines build a 37-23 advantage at the break.
NJIT had three double-figure scorers led by Kehinde Oyelola, who finished with 15 points and added six rebounds. Senior Jill Dickinson picked up 12 points for the Highlanders and classmate Jackie McCaffrey chipped in 10 points.
NJIT junior Katie Piekielski just missed her first career double-double, pulling down a career-high and team-leading 10 rebounds and scoring eight points.
The score stayed close through the first eight-plus minutes and NJIT led, 14-13, after a Taiwo Oyelola layup with 11:55 remaining in the first half.
But Utah Valley went on a 16-0 run over the ensuing 5:17 to build a 29-14 advantage with 6:38 to play in the half. McMurray scored eight points in the run on two three-point baskets and two free throws.
The Highlanders, who got back in the scoring column on a Melanie Griffin layup, cut the deficit down to 12 four different times and trailed at the half, 37-23.
McMurray, with 18 first-half points and Fairbanks, who was limited to seven minutes action by foul trouble, scored 10 to give the Wolverines two double-figure scorers by the intermission. Kehinde Oyelola paced NJIT with six points in the opening period.
Down 17 points, 42-25, after UVU's Fairbanks completed a traditional three-point play with 18:45 left in the game, NJIT made several surges, cutting the lead to 10 two times in the first five minutes of the second half.
However, the Wolverines soon took what would be their biggest lead, 58-40, after Fairbanks made a three-point basket at the 12:28 mark.
But NJIT made one more big push, answering the Fairbanks trey with a 9-0 run to close to within nine, 58-49, on a pair of Dickinson free throws with 7:04 remaining.
Fairbanks, who scored 20 points in the second half, made a layup 22 seconds after Dickinson's free throws and the Utah Valley's lead stayed in double figures throughout the final 6:42.
NJIT, which played the second of its two games in the downtown Newark Prudential Center, will host Longwood on Saturday at 2 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
That game is part of a doubleheader, to be followed by the NJIT men against Chicago State at 4 pm.
