Box Score

ALBANY, NY—The University at Albany men's basketball team, which trailed by 3 points with 2:14 left, outscored visiting NJIT 12-3 the rest of the way for a 71-65 win Tuesday night in SEFCU Arena on the UAlbany campus.

The Great Danes, who held a pregame ceremony recognizing their 2012-13 championship in the America East Conference and trip to the 2013 NCAA Tournament, move to 2-0 early in the new season.

NJIT, which dropped its opener to Tulane in New Orleans last weekend, is 0-2.

UAlbany senior point guard DJ Evans led all scorers with a career-high 20 points, 13 of which came early when he scored 13 of the Danes' first 17 points in the game. Peter Hooley, one of four Australians on the UAlbany roster added 13 points, all in the second half, and junior Sam Rowley, also from Down Under, added 12 points.

For NJIT, sophomore forward Terrence Smith was terrific, scoring a career-high 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 at the foul line. Smith, who was limited to 11 games as a freshman due to a stress fracture in one of his feet, nearly doubled his old high of 10 points, which he reached once as a freshman and then last week at Tulane.

Ky Howard, the top returning scorer from last year's 16-win Highlanders, added 15 points, the most the sophomore guard has scored vs. a Division I opponent. He shot 6-for-7 from the field and added 3 assists and 2 steals.

Freshman Damon Lynn, who fired in 21 points in his college debut against Tulane, collected 14 points on Tuesday night. Lynn shot 4-for-8 on 3-point tries.

There were no big individual rebounders for either side, as the Great Danes held a small 31-28 advantage on the boards. That was an improvement for NJIT, which was outrebounded in the 75-64 loss at Tulane by a lopsided 46-31.

UAlbany's Gary Johnson, a 6-foot-6 senior, led his team with 5 rebounds, none bigger than an offensive rebound off of a missed free throw by Evans with 49 seconds left and the home team ahead 67-64. That rebound allowed the Great Danes to run the clock down to 12 seconds instead of giving NJIT a shot at cutting the deficit or even tying if the Highlanders had been able to control the missed free throw. Three other Danes had 4 rebounds apiece.

Daquan Holiday came off the bench to pace the Highlanders off the board, grabbing 5 caroms. Three other NJIT players—Smith, Howard, and Nigel Sydnor--collected 4 rebounds each.

Winfield Willis, who started the opener at Tulane, played 27 minutes off the bench and let NJIT in assists, with 4, while also scoring 8 points.

Both teams did well with ball security, as UAlbany committed 8 turnovers and NJIT lost possession 11 times.

Playing their home opener in front of a crowd of 3,141 and having celebrated last season's America East title, the Great Danes scored first on an Evans triple and eventually went up 17-10 when he hit another three at the 12:42 mark of the opening half.

But the Highlanders answered with 7 straight points—a Willis 3-pointer, a Holiday layup, and a driving layup for Willis that tied the score at 17 with 10:32 left.

Neither team got a lead over 3 points and the score was tied, 26-26, when the Highlanders spurted late in the first half. Howard broke the tied with a jump shot at 1:42, Lynn swished a three 24 seconds later and Smith scored a layup, assisted by Willis, for a 33-26 NJIT advantage 52 seconds before haltime. UAlbany's Anders Haas, a sophomore guard from Denmark, stopped the NJIT run with a 3-pointer of his own, bringing the score to 33-29, Highlanders, at the break.

Evans, with his early outburst for UAlbany, led all scorers at halftime with 13 points, while Smith had 11 to lead the Highlanders.

NJIT, which was done in at Tulane when the Green Wave outscored the Highlanders, 13-2, in the opening 4:42 of the second half to fall behind by 15 points, looked eerily as if it was headed the same way to open the second half in Albany.

The four-point halftime lead went away quickly and Albany went on top, 36-35, on Rowley's layup 17:30 left, a 7-2 start for the Great Danes in opening 2:30.

On this night, NJIT halted the momentum quickly, answering the brief one-point deficit with an 8-0 run that included two Lynn triples sandwiched around a Tim Coleman layup, all in a span of 39 seconds. That spurt gave the Highlanders a 43-36 advantage with 15:46 remaining.

The Highlanders eventually led by nine, 55-46, following two free throws for Howard at the 9:08 mark.

That would be NJIT's high-water mark, but the Highlanders stayed in the lead or tied all the way until a pair of Johnson free throws put UAlbany up 64-62 with 99 seconds left in the game.

A steal by Hooley and two subsequent made free throws gave the Great Danes a 66-62 edge at 1:15 before Howard's driving reverse layup trimmed the visitors' deficit back to two points at 1:04.

Evans drew a foul with 49 seconds left and with his team in the double-bonus, the point guard made his first try for a 67-64 edge before he missed the second, but Johnson saved the day with the offensive rebound that denied the Highlanders a chance to get closer.

NJIT, which plays its first five games of 2013-14 on the road, will be back on campus early Wednesday morning. The Highlanders will get back on the bus on Friday afternoon, leaving on a 3-game trip that will take them to West Point, NY, for a game at Army on Friday at 7 pm.

The trip will continue with a 2 pm game at New Hampshire on Sunday and then a 7 pm game at Maine on Tuesday night before busing back to Newark from Maine immediately after.

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