Box Score

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, NY—St. Francis Brooklyn stayed hot with a 77-65 men's basketball Monday matinee win over visiting NJIT in the Pope Physical Education Center. The Terriers have won three in a row and six of their last eight.
 
The Terriers (8-5), whose success begins on defense, first seized control by holding NJIT (6-8) scoreless for more than seven minutes in the first half. And when the Highlanders pushed to within two points of the lead, 45-43, on a Jake Duncan jump shot with 13:40 remaining in the game, St. Francis clamped down again, blanking the Highlanders for another 4:04 in a 10-0 run that all but closed the door NJIT's comeback hopes.
 
St. Francis, which posted its second-highest scoring total of the year, got 18 points (12 coming on 12-for-16 shooting at the foul line) from junior All-Northeast Conference forward Jalen Cannon, who also pulled down 6 rebounds. Senior Alex Isailovic came off the bench with 13 points and a team-leading 8 rebounds, with all 13 points and 6 of his rebounds coming in the second half. Junior Brent Jones, who also played as a sub, added 10 points for St. Francis.
 
NJIT fell despite another strong game from sophomore Terrence Smith, who posted his second consecutive double-double, tying for game scoring honors (18 points) and combining that with a game-high and personal-best 12 rebounds. Smith's only real impediment on Monday was foul trouble that limited him to just 26 minutes on the court.
 
Freshman Damon Lynn, who leads NJIT in scoring for the season at 16.6 points per game, returned to double-figure scoring for the first time in three games, netting 13 points vs. St. Francis Brooklyn after managing 9 against LIU Brooklyn and a season-low 5 points against Holy Cross, respectively. Lynn also matched his career rebounding with 6.
 
It was never going to be easy for the Highlanders to score against a St. Francis team that opened its season holding Miami to 62 points in winning the season opener, 66-62, in overtime, and held Syracuse, currently 11-0 and ranked #2 in the nation to just 56 points.
 
Miami, which reached the 2103 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 after winning the 2012-13 title in the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference, scored just 56 in regulation against St. Francis before the Terriers prevailed in overtime.
 
Syracuse, a bona fide national championship contender struggled to beat the Terriers, 56-50. And only three St. Francis foes have reached 70 points out of a total of 13 games.
 
The Highlanders got a Lynn 3-pointer on the first possession and went ahead 5-2 on Smith's layup with 18:44 left in the first half. The Highlanders did not score again until Tim Coleman's layup 11:33 and by then St. Francis had grabbed a 16-5 lead, with seven different Terriers entering the scoring column.
 
Trailing by as many as 11 on two different occasions in the first half, NJIT got back within two of the lead, 31-29, after Smith's tip-in 1:33 before halftime. A 5-0 Terrier run extended their lead back to 36-29, before Nigel Sydnor nailed a corner 3-pointer ahead of the halftime buzzer for the Highlanders, leaving the score at 36-32 through 20 minutes.
 
Another Sydnor three on the first bucket of the second half got the Highlanders the closest they would get at 36-35 with 18:34 on the clock.
 
There was some ebb-and-flow, as St. Francis kept the Highlanders at bay, but the Terriers didn't pull away, either.
 
Martin, a good-looking 6-foot-6 freshman, had given his team a 4-point lead by making the first of two free throws. But Duncan, NJIT's freshman guard who had given his team a lift earlier, netting 5 first-half points to help the Highlanders shake the lengthy scoring drought, hit a jump shot to close the gap to 45-43 with 13:40 left.
 
St. Francis forward Amdy Fall, a long 6-foot-6 forward, got one line in the 110-word Associated Press recap of Monday's game, but no one played a bigger role in the Terriers taking control after NJIT's Duncan had pulled NJIT to within two points.
 
Fall, who finished with a modest 4 points and 5 rebounds in the columns most people look at, registered a career-high 5 blocked shots, leading the Terriers to and impressive team total of 12. Fall and the Terriers also altered numerous NJIT shots, with the Highlanders adding extra moves on the their drives in an effort to avoid being rejected.
 
Another key was that NJIT's Smith picked up a foul trying to establish position after Duncan had launched his shot. The third foul for Smith bought him time on the bench and NJIT's ability to score at the rim became severely limited.
 
With the lead down to two, St. Francis got a foul shot from Cannon and another layup for the big man, who finished after a Mockford steal, putting the Terriers up, 48-43. Fall then blocked shots on NJIT's next two possessions and the second block was recovered for the home team by Jones, who fed Isailovic, who, in turn, swished a three from the top of the key. Jones added a layup for a 53-43 Terrier lead, forcing NJIT coach Jim Engles to call timeout with 10:50 left.
 
Smith came back on for the Highlanders with the timeout, but his shot on the ensuing possession was blocked by Fall, with Isailovic scoring on the other end to cap a 10-0 spurt.
 
Lynn broke the 10-0 Terrier run with a deep 3-pointer, but the St, Francis surge continued, becoming a 14-3 run in the six minutes after Duncan's shot had pulled NJIT within two points of the lead. Eventually, the lead went to 17 points, 68-51, when Cannon drained a pair of foul shots with 4:16 left. From the start of the 10-0 run, St. Francis outscored the Highlanders, 23-8, in a period of 9:24 and the Terriers led by at least 12 over the final 6:21.
 
It can be a challenge to find positives in the fourth game of a four-game losing streak. But NJIT showed  some things that will serve the Highlanders well if they can continue, while also cleaning up the troubling areas.
 
Areas such as 16 turnovers, NJIT's second-highest total of the year. And the Highlanders shot under 40 percent (31.7 percent, to be exact) for the fourth time in the last five games. That contrasts with three straight games of at least 51percent shooting in mid-November.
 
On the plus side, Smith's performance is obvious. His 6-for-11 vs. St. Francis makes him 20-for-30 from the field in the last three games combined.
 
Although the opponents' scoring totals are too high (79.5 points per game in the losing streak), much of the trouble rests in committing fouls that have given too many free throws. Over the last three games, the Highlanders have conceded 90 combined free throws, with opponents scoring 21, 22, and 24 at the line, respectively.
 
Against St. Francis, the Highlanders were the recipient of 16 turnovers, earning two on 10-second backcourt violations, another on a 5-second closely-guarded call, and another on a 5-second failure to inbound call. That kind of pressure can pay off in a closer game.
 
However, the road gets even more difficult for the Highlanders, who will play one their most formidable opponents ever. On Saturday at 1 pm in Indianapolis, NJIT will take on Butler in a game to be nationally televised on Fox Sports 2.
 
Butler is not nationally ranked at this point, but the Bulldogs reached the National Championship Game in 2010 and 2011 and have reached at least 20 wins 15 times in the last 17 years. Butler, 29-7 a year ago, is 9-2 this season, with its two losses coming by a combined four points, both on a neutral court in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, FL. The Bulldogs lost to Oklahoma State, 69-67, on November 29 and to LSU on December 1, 70-68, in overtime. They have won four in a row since those back-to-back defeats in Orlando.