Box Score
 
NEWARK, NJ—Visiting New Hampshire made less than a third of its shots from the field, but the Wildcats' defense held NJIT to an even lower percentage and the visitors shot 21-for-23 at the foul line for a 53-40 UNH women's basketball win Wednesday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The Wildcats, who crushed Division III Worcester State in their season opener at home, are 2-0. NJIT, which opened with road losses at Stony Brook and Lehigh, fell to 0-3 with Wednesday's defeat in the home opener.
 
"I was disappointed in the way we played," said NJIT coach Steve Lanpher after the loss. "We had a great crowd (756 in attendance) and they really supported us. Maybe we were a little anxious with the home opener and all, but we have got to make more shots and play better in general."
 
New Hampshire's 6-foot-4 junior Corrine Coia led all scorers with 16 points, while sophomore guard Elizabeth Belanger added 11 points and 6-foot-4 junior Kaylee Kilpatrick had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
 
The Wildcats, who missed all 10 of their 3-point tries, shot 16-for-51 (31.4 pct) from the field overall, although they did much better in the second half, connecting 40 percent of the time (10-25).  
 
NJIT, which shot a poor 24.1 percent from floor in each half, ended just 14-for-58 from the field overall, including 4-for-24 (16.7 pct) from distance. Junior Denisa Domiterova led NJIT's scorers with 12 points off the bench. All of her scoring came from beyond the 3-point line (4-for-10). Junior point guard Alyssa Albanese added 11 points, all but two of which came in the opening half.
 
Generally, if a team shoots from the outside as NJIT did (24 of its 58 attempts came from beyond the 3-point arc), it will not get as many free throws as a team that drives to the basket or works the ball into the low post.
 
On Wednesday, the more assertive Wildcats drew enough fouls to get 23 free throws, while NJIT managed only 14 tries. The Wildcats made 21 of their tries, a 91.3 percent accuracy rate, while the Highlanders were 8-for-14 (57.1 pct). Kilpatrick and guard Kelsey Hogan each shot 6-for-6 from the foul line.
 
When the Highlanders' inside players did get shots, they didn't enough to get anything going, connecting on a combined 2-for-14 from the field
 
Led by Kilpatrick's game-high 13 rebounds, New Hampshire held a team rebounding lead of 44-40 over NJIT, which was paced by senior Uju Nwankwo (11 rebounds).
 
"I thought their size bothered us," Lanpher said. "Corrine (Coia) hurt us on both ends and they were the more physical team. Our post players were doing things like settling for fadeaway jumpers. That's not going to work and they need to be more aggressive."
 
With all that, it was still close heading into the stretch with New Hampshire up 35-33 after Nwankwo's layup for NJIT with 8:38 left in the contest.
 
Coia answered with a layup of her own 21 seconds later and Kilpatrick's two free throws with 7:40 left pushed the UNH advantage to 39-33.
 
NJIT's Camerin Spahn scored to break the brief  Wildcat run, but Kilpatrick and Coia each made a pair of free throws, with Coia's two foul shots giving her team a 43-35 lead with 6:19 remaining.
 
The Highlanders trimmed the deficit to 7 on a couple of occasions after that, the latest at 45-38 on two free throws for Martina Matejcikova at 4:37.  But New Hampshire closed out the win by outscoring the home team 8-2 the rest of the way to finish with a 53-40 win. 
 
New Hampshire held a 22-20 lead after a cold shooting half for both teams. New Hampshire, which shot 23.1 percent (6-for-26) from the field, had 6 points from Belanger and four each from Kirkpatrick and Hogan.
 
NJIT, 7-for-29 in the half, had a game-high 9 points from Albanese, who also had a pair of steals.  Domiterova, in her first appearance of the season, provided a spark off the bench, contributing 6 points on a pair of 3-pointers in 7 minutes of first-half play.
 
NJIT scored the first point of the game when Albanese made the second of two free throws 14 seconds in, but the Highlanders did not score again until Spahn made the team's first bucket at 12:44, by which time UNH had built an 8-1 advantage.
 
Domiterova assisted on that score and her triple at 11:12 helped fuel a 12-4 NJIT spurt that began on Spahn's layup and ended when Albanese hit a pair of free throws to put the Highlanders ahead 13-12 with 7:09 left.
 
There were four ties in the final 7 minutes, the latest at 20-20, broken by New Hampshire's Hogan on two foul shots 5 seconds before the first-half buzzer. 
 
The Highlanders will hit the road for a game in Washington, DC, Sunday at 2 pm vs. Howard.
 
In pregame ceremonies, NJIT unveiled the banner recognizing its 2013 Great West Conference Tournament championship triumph last March in Chicago when it defeated regular season champion Utah Valley, 52-42.
 
The GWC Tournament banner will hang behind the home bench in the Fleisher Athletic Center, with the bench-side wall holding banners recognizing past NJIT champions in all sports from its eras as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, NCAA Division III, NCAA Division II, and now, Division I.