Box Score

NEWARK, NJ—Holy Cross erupted for 23 unanswered points between the closing 2:33 of the first half and the opening 2:44 of the second half en route to a 74-55 men's basketball win over NJIT Saturday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Junior forward Malcolm Miller led the victorious Crusaders (6-5) with 18 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocked shots, followed sophomore Eric Green, who had 15 points, 5 steals and 5 assists. Senior big man Dave Dudzinski added 14 points and 6 rebounds for Holy Cross, which snapped a brief two-game losing streak with Saturday's win.
 
NJIT (6-7) got the second double-double of the season from sophomore post player Terrence Smith, who finished with 16 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Winfield Willis netted 12 points in 22 minutes off the bench and Ky Howard added 11 for the Highlanders, who shot a season-worst 2-for-14 (14.3 percent) on 3-pointers just a game after going a season-high 11-for-22 from downtown against LIU Brooklyn.
 
That 2-for-14 shooting on threes by the Highlanders was part of a season-low 30 percent on overall field goal tries (18-60). Individually, Smith, who was 7-for-10, and Howard (3-for-5) were the only Highlanders to make more than half their shots.
 
Holy Cross didn't shoot especially well, either, but the Crusaders were an acceptable 41.5 percent (22-53) from the floor and a solid 8-for-22 from distance and 22-for-31 at the foul line.

With NJIT pressing most of the second half in a bid to create Crusader turnovers, Holy Cross was afforded multiple free throw chances and capitalized by making 20-of-27 (74.1 percent) in the half and 71 percent overall (22-of-31) for the game.
 
For more than 17 minutes, the game, albeit close, was a slog for both offenses, as Holy Cross made just 8 of its first 26 shots and NJIT was 7-for-24 with the score tied 21-21 at the final media timeout of the opening half with 3:24 left.
 
Fifteen seconds later, Smith scored a layup for the Highlanders, who went up 23-21 in the 10th lead change of the opening 17 minutes.
 
Then NJIT's nightmare began.
 
Miller, who shot 5-for-6 from the floor and 8-for-10 at the line for the game, tied the score for the Crusaders on the next possession and Holy Cross added three 3-point baskets in the closing 1:21 to surge into halftime ahead 32-23. Taylor Abt started it with his only bucket of the game and Green's three with 22 seconds left put the visitors on top by 6.
 
Instead of getting a final shot before halftime, the Highlanders turned the ball over with 3.1 seconds showing the clock. Still, they harassed the Crusaders on the inbounds play, apparently precluding another score. But Justin Burrell launched a 50-foot heave from behind the center court stripe and the ball banked into the net for three more Holy Cross points just ahead of the horn.
 
With all that, the score was a competitive 32-23 with 20 minutes still to play.
 
However, the visitors scored six points in the opening 28 seconds of the second half, extending the Holy Cross lead to 15 and prompting NJIT coach Jim Engles to take timeout in a bid to slow the Crusaders' momentum.
 
The timeout didn't shift the needle for the Highlanders at all, as Green stole the ball on the next three NJIT possessions. The first steal set up two Miller free throws. Then Green stole the ball in the back court and dunked it himself before his third theft in 55 seconds resulted in two more Miller free throws that swelled the Holy Cross lead to 44-23 at the 17:16 mark.
 
Having seen enough, Engles substituted at all five positions en masse, but he went back to the original five, again en masse, at 15:41. Seeking a spark, the coach continued to make large-scale substitutions on many dead-ball situations for the rest of the game.
 
After Miller dunked to put Holy Cross back up by what would be a game-high 21 points, this time at 46-25 with 15:19 remaining, the Highlanders gained some traction. In fact, after finally stopping the Holy Cross onslaught, NJIT seized the momentum itself.
 
After the Miller dunk, the Highlanders went on an 8-3 run and, showing much more intensity than they had at any point earlier, kept working the score closer.
 
Eventually, NJIT got back to the halftime deficit of 9 with 5:18 left, when Willis, fouled in the act of attempting a 3-pointer, hit all three free throws for the Highlanders, making the score 58-49.
 
However, Holy Cross already had more points in less than 35 minutes than NJIT would score in 40. And despite the improved effort, the shooting difficulties never went away for the Highlanders, who faded into a 19-point losing margin, their widest of the season.
 
Having gone 9 days since its last contest before resuming on Saturday vs. Holy Cross, NJIT will play three games, all away, between Monday, December 23 and the following Monday, the 30th. The Highlanders will start the busy week with a Monday matinee at St. Francis Brooklyn in a 2 pm start.
 
Last year in Newark, NJIT trailed the Terriers by 20 with 9:06 left on a 78-58 score. However, NJIT made one of its trademark rallies and actually tied the score with 26 seconds left before falling, 89-87.
 
Reconvening after Christmas, NJIT will fly out early on December 27 to Indianapolis for a nationally televised game at Butler on the 28th. Flying back from Butler the next morning, the Highlanders will go by bus to Long Island for a game at Hofstra on December 30 to close out the 16-game 2013 portion of the 2013-14 schedule.