Box score

PISCATAWAY, NJ—Rutgers outscored NJIT by 32 points over the final 17:24, turning an eight-point deficit into a 77-53 victory in Thursday night men's basketball at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
 
The Highlanders, who played some of their best ball of the year in the first half and into the opening minutes of the second half, did not fall behind for good until 14:28 remained and still trailed by single-digits, 57-48, with 9:20 left, but they  managed just five points after that.
 
NJIT slipped to 4-6 with the defeat, as the Highlanders dropped their third loss—all to Big East opponents on the road—in the last four games.
 
Rutgers (7-5) won its third straight, with four players scoring in double-figures, sparked by a game-high 16 points off the bench from 5-foot-9 freshman guard Myles Mack.
 
The balanced Scarlet Knights, who came in getting 11.4 points per game each from forward Gilvydas Biruta and guard Eli Carter, plus 10 ppg from Mack, got 15 points and seven rebounds from Biruta against NJIT, plus 10 points and seven boards from Carter, and 10 points from junior center Austin Johnson.
 
The Highlanders had three double-figure scorers, with 12 points each from Chris Flores and Lamar Kearse and 10 points—all in the first half from Isaiah Wilkerson.
 
NJIT, which held its own on the boards in the first half, especially on the defensive end, where Rutgers got only four offensive rebounds in the opening 20 minutes, was overwhelmed by the bigger, deeper Scarlet Knights in the second half.
 
Rutgers got 14 second-half offensive rebounds, which translated into 13 second-chance points in the period. The second-half rebound totals favored the Scarlet Knights, 32-14, for a game total of 51-28 and a total lead in second-chance points of 19-4.
 
Rutgers also finished with huge edges in points-in-the-paint, 40-22, and in bench scoring, 30-15, with 12 of the NJIT bench points coming from Kearse. The depth of the Big East Scarlet Knights was even more apparent in the second half, when their reserves outscored the NJIT bench, 24-7.
 
Wilkerson, the 6-foot-3 power forward for the Highlanders, led NJIT with seven rebounds, which tied Biruta and Carter of Rutgers for game honors.
 
Wilkerson and Flores each had four assists for the Highlanders, while the first two NJIT centers—Ryan Regis and Sean McCarthy—combined for seven blocked shots, four for Regis and three for McCarthy.
 
Carter, one of three freshmen in the Rutgers top six, did not shoot well (4-for-13 from the field and 4-for-8 from the line), but he added a game-high five assists, plus two steals to his all-around stat line.
 
The opening 20 minutes couldn't have gone a lot better for NJIT, with the score tied at 32 at the half, aside from an arguable flagrant foul call that took the ball from NJIT and led directly to four Rutgers points with just four seconds coming off the clock.
 
In a first half that saw eight ties and 12 lead changes, they built what would be the biggest lead of the half for either team, 32-26, with 1:41 remaining.
 
Biruta, the Rutgers big man, who had eight points up till then, missed a jumper and the rebound came to NJIT's McCarthy. Doing as he is taught, McCarthy “swept” the ball with his arms to clear space and Biruta stepped in and then dropped to the floor on what appeared to be minor contact, drawing the offensive foul.
 
After a conference between the official who called the foul and the lead official, McCarthy was assessed a flagrant foul for elbow contact above the shoulders. Biruta, who was not at all shaken up on the play, then made both free throws, and Rutgers was awarded possession on the baseline, where it scored directly off the in-bounds play on a baseline layup by Johnson.
 
After a missed three for the Highlanders, a Rutgers turnover and a miss for NJIT on the front end of a one-and-one foul opportunity, Biruta scored a layup ahead of the halftime buzzer, creating the eighth tie of the half.
 
Biruta's 12 points led the Scarlet Knights at halftime, followed by four players with four points each. For NJIT, Wilkerson had his 10 points, while Kearse had eight in 10 minutes of action off the bench.
 
The Highlanders have had second-half difficulty in most of their losses this year and even in one of their wins,  seemed to get past coming out of halftime against Rutgers.
 
Opening the half with possession, NJIT's Ryan Woods found Flores for a wide-open backdoor layup. Woods then stole the ball and threw ahead to PJ Miller, who was fouled and made two free throws.
 
After a missed layup by Rutgers' Carter, Woods got the rebound and sent the ball ahead to Wilkerson, who fed Flores for a breakaway layup, prompting Rutgers coach Mike Rice to call time 1:17 into the half.
 
The timeout had no immediate effect, as Miller stole the ball from Mack and turned it into another layup, as NJIT bolted to an 8-0 run in the first 1:29 of the second half.
 
Jerome Seagears finally scored for the Scarlet Knights and NJIT finally missed a shot after hitting its first three tries from the floor, plus two free throws, but Miller stole the ball again from Mack and scored another bucket, making it 42-34 for the Highlanders with 17:24 remaining.
 
That would be the high point of the night for the Highlanders. Having made four of their first five shots from the field in the second half and having committed five turnovers in 23 minutes to build the eight-point lead, their totals for the remainder turned ugly, as they shot 4-for-23 from the field and committed 10 turnovers in the final 17 minutes.
 
Rutgers went ahead to stay part way through what would be an 18-0 burst in a span of 4:43. The go-ahead points came at 14:28 on a pair of Mike Poole free throws that made it 43-42 for the Scarlet Knights.
 
Given how well they had played through the first half and into the second half, the Highlanders still appeared to have a chance when Kearse made the second of two free throws to trim the deficit to nine, 57-48, with 9:20 left.
 
However, Mack nailed a 3-pointer (one of just two treys in the game for his squad), triggering a 12-0 Rutgers run that wasn't broken until Flores scored a layup some 4:34 after the Kearse free throw.
 
NJIT, which has completed its three games against Big East opponents, will break for Christmas, before playing two more games in 2011. The first will be a home game on December 28 against North Jersey rival Fairleigh Dickinson in a 7 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. Last season, in the first Division I men's basketball meeting between the programs, NJIT was a 64-63 winner in overtime at FDU.
 
After hosting Fairleigh Dickinson of the Northeast Conference, the Highlanders will travel to defending NEC champion Long Island University for a game in Brooklyn, NY, on December 30.