Box Score

NEWARK, NJ—Junior point guard Alyssa Albanese put NJIT ahead to stay on a layup with 2:04 remaining and then scored three more of her team-leading 13 points for the Highlanders, who overcame a slow start Saturday afternoon to defeat visiting Bucknell, 61-59, in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The only other double-figure scorer for NJIT (2-6) was post player Uju Nwankwo, who netted 11 points to go with a game-high 11 rebounds for the second double-double of her senior season and ninth of her career. Junior Denisa Domiterova, who helped the Highlanders get back into contention with a pair of first-half 3-pointers and finished with 6 points, passed for a team-leading 4 assists. Albanese made 3 steals to pace the winners in that category.
 
Bucknell, which came in having won at Cornell and home vs. Youngstown State since last Saturday, fell back under .500 on the season at 3-4 with the defeat at NJIT. The Bison got a game-high 16 points from junior forward Audrey Dotson, who also finished with 7 rebounds and is the team's top scorer and rebounder for the season, averaging 17.7 points and 8.9 rebounds.
 
Sophomore guard Claire Maree O'Bryan came off the Bucknell bench for 15 points in 16 minutes of action and starting guard Sheaira Jones added 10. Senior guard Shelby Romine topped the Bison rebounders with 9 and also handed out a game-best 5 assists.
 
The Highlanders managed just four points in the opening 6:30 and trailed by as many as 11 on two separate occasions in the opening half, but they finished off the first half strong to trail just 26-23 at halftime.
 
NJIT finally gained its first lead of the day, 34-32, on Martina Matejcikova's 3-pointer with 14:36 left in the game and the Highlanders did not trail again for nearly eight minutes, until Claire DeBoer's layup made it 49-47 for the visitors with 6:51 remaining.
 
That score was part of a 9-4 Bucknell run that flipped a 47-43 NJIT lead at 8:58 into a 52-47 Bucknell advantage when Dotson converted a traditional 3-point play with 5:12 on the clock.
 
Nicole Maticka, the 6-foot-3 junior who shot 2-for-3 from distance on the day for the Highlanders and has made 26 3-pointers in her career, hit a three to stem the Bucknell rally and close the Highlanders within two at 52-50 with 3:44 left.
 
Bucknell answered with a jump shot by Jones on the other end, but Alana Dudley replied with another triple for the Highlanders on their next possession, leaving them down a point with 3:12 left.
 
Each team made one of two foul shots to keep it a one-point game before Albanese scored on a layup and a 56-55 NJIT edge with 2:04 on the clock.
 
A miss by Bucknell and defensive rebound for Nwankwo, who put the ball in the hands of her point guard, Albanese, set up some breathing room for the Highlanders. Bucknell fouled the junior lead guard, who made both foul shots, giving NJIT a 3-point lead with 1:41 still to play.
 
O'Bryan made two foul shots at 1:22 to trim the Highlanders' lead back to a single point, but after two rare missed free throws by Bucknell's Dotson, who came in having made 27 of her 28 free throws through the first 6 games, Nwankwo grabbed the defensive rebound again. This time the pass went to Maticka, who hit her two foul shots for a 60-57 NJIT margin with 21 seconds remaining.
 
Bucknell's O'Bryan hit two more foul shots with 8 seconds left, again trimming the deficit to a single point, but Albanese made the second of foul shots with 4 seconds left and Dotson's 3-point try at the buzzer missed, allowing the Highlanders to survive, 61-59.
 
A close finish appeared improbable in the early going, when NJIT struggled to put any points on the board.
 
The teams traded scores through the first couple of minutes, but Bucknell built a large lead while NJIT was stuck at four points from Nwankwo's layup that made the score 4-4 with 18:25 left in the half until Shakia Robinson's short jump shot with 13:30 left, by which time the Bison had scored 13.
 
Bucknell responded to the Robinson bucket with two more of its own, taking its first double-digit lead at 17-6 after Micki Impellizeri's drive at 11:59.
 
The spread fluctuated from 7 to 11 for the next five minutes before the Highlanders spurted back into contention with an 8-2 run, capped by Domiterova's triple that cut the deficit to 23-18 with 4:02 left in the half.
 
Even with that, Bucknell still held a 26-18 advantage after DeBoer's layup with 2:04 remaining until the half.
 
But Domiterova fed teammate Robinson for a bucket at 1:39 and the junior from Slovakia hit her second 3-pointer of the half on NJIT's next possession, pulling the Highlanders to within three of the lead, 26-23, which is where the half ended.
 
The top scorer in the opening half was Bucknell's Jones, with 8 points, while Nwankwo, Domiterova, and Robinson all had 6 points apiece for the home team.
 
Having played their second home game of the year with the visit from Bucknell, the Highlanders will head back out for one of their farthest trips of the year, visiting South Dakota State for a 7 pm (CST) game Monday night.