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NEWARK, NJ—On a day when NJIT struggled to make shots, it was the defense that carried the day for the Highlanders, who downed visiting UMass Lowell, 55-44, Saturday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The Highlanders (6-4) shot a season-worst 38 percent from the floor (20-for-53) and matched their season low for points with 55. But they held UMass Lowell (1-8) to 26 percent shooting (13-for-50) and the 44 points by the River Hawks was the lowest by an opponent this season, nearly 20 points under the previous low of 63 by New Hampshire in a 71-63 win for the Highlanders on November 17.
 
This year's 6-4 start is the best for NJIT in Division I competition since the program moved to the top level in 2006-07. The Highlanders, who were 5-5 through 10 games last season, last began the year 6-4 in 2000-01, when they competed as a Division II program.
 
On a day when NJIT's three most reliable scorers struggled at the same time, others Highlanders needed to step up and enough did so to put the Highlanders in the win column against UMass Lowell.
 
Leading scorer Damon Lynn, averaging 20.1 points through the first 9 games, managed 8 points on Saturday, the first time he scored fewer than 14 in a college game. Second-leading scorer Terrence Smith, coming off a 9-for-10 game in Wednesday's win vs. Maine, was held to a season-low 4 points on 1-for-7 shooting on Saturday. And Winfield Willis, who had averaged 10.1 ppg, netted wo points on 1-for-5 shooting vs. UMass Lowell.
 
With their most dangerous trio combining to shoot 5-for-25, the rest of the Highlanders were 15-for-28, as freshman Tim Coleman and sophomore transfer Emmanuel Tselentakis shared team scoring honors with 13 points apiece. Coleman, a fine all-around player, added 6 rebounds, while the 13 points for Tselentakis were nearly triple his previous single-game best of 5 points.
 
Smith, NJIT's sophomore low post star, pulled down a team-leading 7 rebounds and Lynn handed out a game-best 4 assists, while committing one turnover in 37 minutes of action. Freshman Montana Mayfield, who made his first college appearance on December 1 against Maine, also had a strong floor game, turning the ball over once in 14 minutes, while scoring 7 on 3-for-4 shooting that included a make on his only 3-point try.
 
UMass Lowell had the game's two top scorers in senior guard Akeem Williams (19 points) and junior guard Chad Holley (14 points). However, the rest of the UMass Lowell lineup combined for just 10 more points. Indeed, the NJIT bench outscored the River Hawks reserves, 28-0.
 
Committing a season-low 9 turnovers for the third time this season and turning over the River Hawks 15 times on the other end, NJIT had a 15-5 advantage in points-off-turnovers.
 
And faced with a day where its jump shots were not falling with any consistency, NJIT outscored the visitors in the paint, 30-12.
 
The Highlanders led at halftime, 28-21, led by Tselentakis, who more than doubled his previous career scoring high with 11 points in 10 first-half minutes. Tselentakis, whose previous high was 5 points at Army on November 15, shot 3-for-3 on 3-pointers and racked up his 11 points in a span of 4:14.
 
UMass Lowell's Williams, an All-New England Division II player as a junior last year, paced the Rivers Hawks in the opening half with 9 points.
 
Both teams started slowly and the score was just 2-2 nearly five minutes into the game. The visitors gradually built a 10-6 lead on a Williams layup at the 11:28 mark and it was 12-8 when Tselentakis entered with 9:46 left and hit his first 3-pointer 25 seconds later.
 
The sophomore from Greece playing his first season for NJIT after having redshirted at Saint Louis University in 2011-12 and again last year under NCAA transfer rules, drained another three at 8:35, then a jump shot at 7:08 and another shot from outside the arc that put the Highlanders on top for the rest of half, 19-17, with 5:07 left in the half. The last triple sparked a 10-0 NJIT run in 2:04 that included a Montana Mayfield three, a Tim Coleman dunk, and a Damon Lynn layup.
 
The Highlanders led the entire second half, but their occasional offensive spurts were not enough to create the kind of lead they might have built while holding UMass Lowell to 23 second-half points.
 
There was the 10-0 run in the first half that keyed their 7-point halftime lead, but it wasn't until almost midway through the second half that the Highlanders extended the lead into double-digits.
 
Leading by 7 after UMass Lowell's Holley hit a pair of free throws to make it 34-27 with 13:28 left, NJIT went on an 8-1 spurt, capped by Mayfield's layup that put the Highlanders on top 42-28, the biggest lead of the day for either team, at the 9:18 mark.
 
However, the dangerous duo of Holley and Williams joined for a 10-0 River Hawks' run, with Holley scoring eight, beginning the spurt with a 3-point basket at 8:46 and capping it with a traditional 3-point play at 6:24, making the score 42-38.
 
NJIT's Coleman scored a layup and then a jump shot and Willis made his only bucket of the day for the Highlanders to push the lead back to 48-38 with 3:46 left.
 
However, Williams sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around two Lynn free throws for NJIT and the Highlander lead was back down to six. The River Hawks had a chance to get closer, with three shots, all misses, in one sequence early in the final minute before Coleman got a rebound for the Highlanders and was fouled with 51 seconds left.
 
He made both foul shot and NJIT was 5-for-6 at the foul line in the last 51 seconds, while the Highlanders held the visitors scoreless after Williams' triple at the 2:25 mark.
 
The Highlanders will be the visiting team in their next contest, but they'll be the visiting team on Tuesday when they travel the 1.4 miles downtown from campus to the Prudential Center to face Seton Hall. The NJIT-Seton Hall, the fifth annual game in the series between the Pirates and Highlanders, will be televised nationally at 9 pm on FOX Sports 1.