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NEWARK, NJ—Senior point guard DJ Evans scored 10 of his team-leading 17 points for the University at Albany in a space of less than 3 minutes early in the second half, triggering a game-winning comeback by  the visiting Great Danes, who first overtook and then subdued NJIT, 66-55, Sunday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
NJIT (4-4), ahead by 14 midway through the opening half and still up by 10 early in the second half, lost its second straight home game and also its second defeat in less than 3 weeks against defending America East champion UAlbany (4-3).
 
The Highlanders fell in their previous game five days earlier vs. Central Connecticut, 74-71, and they lost in Albany, 71-65, on November 12.
 
Sunday's loss to UAlbany, coupled with the earlier defeat vs. Central Connecticut, marked the first time NJIT has fallen in consecutive home games since February 2012. Then, the Highlanders lost back-to-back close games, falling to Colgate on the 1st and to Utah Valley in double overtime on the eight days later. NJIT was 16-4 in its next 20 games in the Fleisher Athletic Center before dropping these last two contests.
 
The Great Danes, who outscored the Highlanders in the second half, 47-29, took their second win in a row in New Jersey after beating Rider in Lawrenceville last Tuesday.
 
In addition to Evans, who scored all 17 of his points in the decisive second half on Sunday, UAlbany had four others reach double-figure scoring. Mike Rowley, a 6-foot-8 freshman from Australia, added 12 points and a game-high 9 rebounds, plus 3 blocked shots. Senior Gary Johnson, who gave the visitors a lift when he entered the game in the opening half, finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds, and 6-foot-10 senior center John Puk and Peter Hooley, another Aussie, each contributed 10 points for the winners.
 
NJIT had one double-figure scorer, freshman Damon Lynn, who finished with 24 points, including 18 of his team's 29 points in the second half. Until Sunday, balanced scoring was a staple of this early season for the Highlanders, who had at least 3 double-figure scorers and as many as 5 in each of their first seven games.
 
For NJIT, both Sunday's scoring total of 55 points and the shooting percentage of 34.5 percent (19-55) were new season lows. The previous low field goal percentage had been 40.4 (21-52), which was set in the previous loss against Central Connecticut. Typically, teams shoot better at home in a familiar setting than on the road, but that has not been true in a small sample for NJIT, which made more than half of its tries in three consecutive road games (at UAlbany, at Army, and at New Hampshire).
 
NJIT's top rebounder was Terrence Smith with 7, while Ky Howard had 6 assists without a turnover in 18 minutes,
 
On top of holding NJIT under 35 percent shooting accuracy, the Great Danes also did a fine job limiting second chances, as the Highlanders managed to get only 7 of their misses, while UAlbany came away with 30 defensive rebounds when NJIT missed. Not surprisingly, the Danes held an 11-3 edge on second-chance points.
 
A bit more surprising, the points-off-turnovers favored the Great Danes, 15-4, including 10-0 in the decisive second half. Those numbers came despite only a small disparity in turnovers, 11 by NJIT and 8 by UAlbany. The Great Danes held a 22-11 second-half rebounding advantage after NJIT won the battle in the first half, 23-18.
 
There was little indication of what was to come in the opening minutes. UAlbany's Puk, the 6-foot-10 senior, dunked for the first score of the game, but NJIT answered with a 13-0 run, capped by Lynn's triple that made it 13-2 just 4:42 into the game.
 
The 13-0 run was typical of the best basketball the Highlanders have shown this year, as all five baskets in the spurt were assisted and four different players accounted for the five buckets.
 
On defense, the Highlanders were conceding mostly jump shots, Puk's opening dunk not withstanding. As NJIT was grabbing the early lead, UAlbany misfired on its first six jump shots.
 
Rowley finally broke the 13-0 NJIT spell by making the first of two free throws out of the first media timeout at 14:51. But, after each team missed a shot, Nigel Sydnor finished a fast break with a layup, making it 15-3 with 13:58 left.  That Sydnor basket was assisted, too, giving the Highlanders 6 assists in the opening 6:02. They would get just five more of the nearly 34 minutes left in the game and only two in the second half.
 
Despite slowing down from their early scoring pace, the Highlanders still kept UAlbany under wraps on the defensive end of the court and when Winfield Willis scored a layup, assisted by Lynn, at the 10:04 mark NJIT was on top 19-5, the biggest lead of the day for either team.
 
Later, Johnson, the lanky UAlbany senior, scored twice in 19 seconds, taking advantage of two quick NJIT turnovers and igniting a 10-2 Great Dane run that trimmed the Highlander lead to 21-15 with 5:36 left. He later hit a jump shot and a free throw, getting his team within 4 points of the lead, but Willis and Ky Howard scored for the Highlanders, Howard on a drive just ahead of the halftime buzzer, giving NJIT its 26-19 lead at the break.
 
The freshman Lynn was NJIT's top first-half scorer, netting 6 points, but three others had at least 4 for the Highlanders. Johnson, with his 8 points for the Danes, was game-high at the break.
 
Having withstood UAlbany's push that made the first-half score close, NJIT got a 3-pointer from Lynn and a dunk from Smith, extending the lead back to 10, 31-21, with 18:42 remaining.
 
Up until then, Evans, the 5-foot-9 guard who led all scorers with a personal-best 20 point the first time the Great Danes played the Highlanders in November, was scoreless, having missed three first-half shots. That ended quickly in the second half. With his team down 10, Evans scored 10 of UAlbany's next 12 points in just 2:58, tying the score at 33-33 on a 3-pointer with 15:33 remaining.
 
Evans' quick points were part of a 17-2 UAlbany run that turned NJIT's 31-21 lead at 18:42 into a 38-33 Great Danes lead after Rowley's layup with 13:39 left.
 
In the midst of the 17-2 rally, Puk's traditional 3-point play at 14:35 broke the 33-33 tie and the visitors led the rest of the way, even though the Highlanders got within two points of the lead three more times, the last at 48-46, when Smith made the second of two free throws with 6:01 remaining.
 
But UAlbany responded  to the Smith foul shot and a 3-pointer for Evans pushed the lead back to 9, 57-48, at the 3:41 mark and NJIT did not get closer than 7 points after that.
 
NJIT continues it late November/early December home stand on Wednesday at 7 pm, when it entertains Maine in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. As with UAlbany, NJIT is facing Maine for the second time in a short span, having defeated the Black Bears in Bangor, 88-82, on November 19.