Box Score Post Game Interview

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT exploded for 53 first-half points and never allowed Fairleigh Dickinson closer than 13 points in the second half of an 84-71 victory for the host Highlanders, who scored their season-best in topping FDU Thursday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The Highlanders, who put up their highest scoring total against a Division I team since February 18, 2012, when they scored 88 in beating Houston Baptist, shot 63.6 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes Thursday against Fairleigh. NJIT made 21 of its 33 shots in the opening half, including 9-for-15 on 3-pointers.
 
Thursday's win lifted NJIT to 3-10, while Fairleigh Dickinson falls to 1-8.
 
NJIT had four double-figure scorers, including two who posted double-doubles.
 
Uju Nwankwo led a balanced attack for the Highlanders with 17 points and she added 15 rebounds, the second time in 12 days she has pulled down at least 15 boards following her career-best 17 at Rhode Island on December 7. Nwankwo shot 8-for-11 from field vs. FDU.
 
The other double-double came from junior point guard Alyssa Albanese, who surpassed the program Division I single-game assists record with 10, while adding 12 points. She shot 4-for-5 from field and 3-for-3 at the foul line.
 
Since NJIT began Division I play in 2006-07, the assists record had been 9 (Ivana Seric vs. Texas-Pan American on 2/10/10 and Kimberly Dweck vs. St. Francis Brooklyn on 11/20/12). The overall program record is 13 by Jackie McCaffrey vs. Nyack on 2/25/05 and Albanese's total was the most for a Highlander since that date nine seasons ago.
 
Graduate student Shakia Robinson added 16 points on 8-for-13 shooting Thursday and Denisa Domiterova collected 14 points and 4 assists for the Highlanders.
 
Before Thursday's win vs. FDU, the last time NJIT had four players reach double-figure scoring was in a 69-49 win over Chicago State on March 3, 2012. On that day, the top scorers were: Domiterova (21 points); Nicole Maticka, who is still a Highlander, but is out with an injury (17); Rayven Johnson (Class of 2013, 12 points); and Nwankwo (12).
 
Sophomore guard Kelsey Cruz scored a game-high and personal career-high 24 points for the Knights. Junior Amanda Andrades chipped in her personal career-best 18 points for FDU, which was without its top scorer for the season, sophomore forward Brianna Thomas and her 16.4 points per game.
 
Led by Nwankwo's 15 rebounds, NJIT matched its team season-best 41 total rebounds and its plus-8 advantage on the boards was a season high. Sophomore Anastasia Williams had 7 rebounds to top the Knights in that category.
 
The Highlanders, who enjoyed a substantial 42-24 lead on points in the paint, also blocked 6 FDU shots on the other end. Junior Martina Matejcikova led the way with a career-best 3 blocks for the Highlanders after having blocked two in nine previous career games. Nwankwo swatted a pair of shots, giving her 20 for the season.and 154 in her career. She inched past the injured Maticka (153) atop the NJIT career list.
 
The Highlanders matched their season high from downtown, connecting on 9 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, led by 3 for Domiterova. But FDU did the Highlanders one better, making a team season-high 10 triples, as Cruz and Andrades each shot 4-for-6 from distance.
 
NJIT all but locked up the W in the first half, when the Highlanders spotted FDU an early 5-2 lead but then went on an 11-0 run sparked by Albanese, who hit a three to tie the game at the 17:48 mark of the first half and followed 17 seconds later with a conventional 3-point play on a layup and a foul shot.
 
NJIT continued to dominate, going up 19-7 on Matejcikova's three with 12:03 left in the half and later expanding the lead to a game-high 23 points on two occasions in the opening half—33-10 when Nwankwo converted the first of two foul shots at the 6:50 mark and again at 40-17 on a Robinson layup at 4:38.
 
The Highlanders were on top at the break, 53-31 without a double-figure scorer in the opening 20 minutes, although everyone who had played scored and three players had at least 8 points, paced by Domiterova's 9. Andrades had a game-best 14 in the opening half, despite the fact that her team was in a 22-point hole.
 
It would have been difficult for NJIT to keep up its hot shooting for the whole game and the Highlanders didn't, dropping from 63.6 percent in the opening half to 40.6 percent (13-32) in the second. The biggest dropoff came on 3-pointers, where NJIT missed all 7 of its second-half tries after the sizzling 9-for-15 in the opening half.
 
Even so, the Highlanders had a slightly higher overall second-half field goal percentage than did FDU, which shot 40 percent (14-35).
 
The Knights scored the first four points of the second half, but Nwankwo's bucket with 18:01 left put the NJIT lead back at 20 points and the Highlanders stayed on top by at least 20 from 17:23 to 13:51, when Kiana Brown (8 points) cut the deficit to 16 for the visitors as part of a 7-0 run.
 
The Highlanders got their lead back to 19 three more times, the last after Robinson's layup made it 71-52 with 6:53 on the clock. A 10-4 Fairleigh spurt trimmed the Highlander lead to 13 with 4:16 remaining. But the Knights got no closer.
 
NJIT is back in action on Saturday at 2 pm, when the Highlanders take the short trip to South Orange, NJ, to face Seton Hall, which is 7-2.
 
The Pirates, in their first season under 1989 Seton Hall grad Anthony Bozzella, are enjoying an impressive revival after going 11-20 in 2012-13, their fourth consecutive 20-loss season since finishing 17-14 in 2008-09. A veteran head coach, Bozzella previously turned around struggling programs at Division II Southampton and then in Division I at LIU Brooklyn and at Iona.
 
The only defeats for Seton Hall this season are an 89-67 loss at nationally-ranked South Carolina and an airtight 71-70 road loss vs. Illinois in the most recent game on December 9. All 7 Pirates' wins have been at home, where they nipped NJIT, 69-66, in last year's season opener for both teams on November 9, 2012. It was the first game as head coach of the Highlanders for Steve Lanpher, who capped his first season with the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament championship.