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INDIANAPOLIS—Powerful Butler led from start to finish Saturday afternoon en route to a 66-48 men's basketball win over visiting NJIT in a contest played in front of 6,504 fans in historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, plus a national cable TV audience on FOX Sports 2.

The Bulldogs, who raised their season record to 10-2 with their fifth straight win, got a game-high 21 points from senior forward Khyle Marshall and 10 points off the bench from freshman guard Rene Castro. Junior Kameron Woods added 9 points and game-high 12 rebounds, leading Butler to a dominant 45-27 lead over the Highlanders on the boards.

Saturday's win over the Highlanders raised Butler's record in Hinkle Fieldhouse since 1995-96 to 232-34. Included in that record is 25 wins in the last 28 games and a 6-0 mark this year. Hinkle Fieldhouse, opened in 1928, was the site both of the championship scenes in the 1986 motion picture Hoosiers and the 1954 "Milan Miracle" that inspired the iconic film.

NJIT (6-9) managed just 16 first-half points before scoring 32 in the second half, but the 48 points on Saturday was the lowest count in a game this season for NJIT, which has three 55-point games. Damon Lynn (11 points) was the only Highlander to reach double-figures scoring on Saturday.

Sophomore Terrence Smith was the most effective Highlander on the offensive end, scoring 8 points on 4-for-7 shooting, but he was limited to 18 minutes of action a combination of flu-like syptoms and foul trouble in the game. Smith also collected 5 rebounds in his limited playing time.

Nigel Sydnor finished with 8 points and 6 rebounds, while Ky Howard added 7 points and matched his personal career high with 7 assists, with only one turnover in 35 minutes.

Further, junior Odera Nweke, who missed the first seven games due to injury and struggled at times in the seven ensuing games, showed encouraging signs in Saturday's second half.

Nweke, who was a key reserve in NJIT's run to the 2012-13 Great West Conference regular season title and was listed as a probable starter before injury kept him out early this year, chipped in a solid 4 points and 4 rebounds in 9 second-half minutes vs. Butler. He finished with 4 points and 5 rebounds.

Butler, which reached the National Championship game in both 2010 and 2011 and which has reached at least 20 wins in 15 of the last 17 seasons, is tremendously strong in fundamentals on both ends of the floor.

Without a lot of flash, the Bulldogs came in outscoring their opponents by an average of 76.1 points-to-63.8 points along with an average rebounding advantage of 38.1-to-32.9.

In that sense, Saturday's score was not all that surprising, although NJIT's 48 points on 30 percent shooting was below average for Butler's foes. However, the Highlanders held the Bulldogs to 66 points, 10 under their average.

NJIT also limited sophomore Kellen Dunham, Butler's top scorer coming in (18.9 ppg) to 9 points in 35 minutes, just the third time he's been under 10 points this year. He scored 32 points against Washington State exactly a month earlier.

Butler, ranked 24th nationally in fewest turnovers per game (10.2) had 9 miscues on Saturday. However, the Highlanders did the winners one better, turning the ball over just 7 times.

In his post-game session with the media, NJIT coach Jim Engles said: "I told my team during film sessions that the way Butler plays is what we want to be. I thought our effort was good, but they just dominated us on the boards and in the paint (36-24 scoring, including 20-6 in the first half) and you can't let that happen and expect to stay close."

The Highlanders fell behind early in a first half that ended with them trailing 29-16 on 20.7 percent (6-for-28) shooting. Butler, meanwhile, shot 52 percent (13-25), despite going 0-for-6 on 3-pointers.

The game was tied when both teams scored on their first possession, but Dunham's jump shot made it 4-2 with 88 seconds into the game and the Bulldogs went up 14-4 before NJIT's Lynn hit the first of his three 3-pointers at the 12:52 mark.

NJIT eventually got the deficit down to six, the latest at 22-16 when Winfield Willis made a steal and breakaway layup for the Highlanders with 3:27 left. However, two NJIT turnovers in the last 1:26 of the half and two layups for Castro, the Butler freshman, pushed the Bulldogs to a first-half biggest 13-point bulge.

No player for either team was in double-figures at the half, but Marshall and Castro led Butler with 8 apiece. Sydnor and Lynn each had 5 to pace NJIT at the break.

Although the Highlanders would shoot better in the second half than they had in the first, going 12-for-31 (38.7 percent) after barely breaking 20 percent in the opening half, Butler expanded its lead early in the second half.

Up 13 at halftime, Butler used an 8-2 spurt from 16:46 to 15:09 to go ahead 42-23 after an Alex Barlow three.

The spread stayed in the teens until a 7-2 spurt from 12:06 to 10:14, capped by Jake Duncan's triple for the Highlanders, pulled the score to 45-34 with plenty of time still to play.

However, NJIT got no closer and Butler took three 19-point leads in the closing 5:20 before finishing with the 66-48 win.

NJIT, which has lost its last five, will look to halt the streak on Monday at 7 pm, when it takes on first-time opponent Hofstra on Long Island.