Box Score (PDF)
 
 
HAMILTON, NY – Senior F Ryan Woods scored 17 of his career-high 26 points in the second half, guiding NJIT to a 77-58 win at Colgate University on Wednesday. Woods finished a blazing 10-for-12 from the floor and 6-for-7 from deep to pace the largest road victory in the program's Division-I era, which started in 2006-07.

In fact, the 19-point win was the program's largest since the D-II Highlanders posted a 73-50 win at Goldey-Beacom (DE) College on Jan. 24, 2004. Previously, the largest D-I road wins were by nine points at Wagner (65-56) on Dec. 28, 2009, and at Chicago State (73-64) on Feb. 4, 2012.

It was also NJIT's largest defeat over a D-I opponent this season.

With the win, the Highlanders have emerged victorious in three of their last four games to improve to 12-11. The Raiders fell to 9-15 in their final non-conference game of the season.

“We were pretty complete on both ends of the floor tonight and it's nice to get out of here with a tremendous win on the road,” said Head Coach Jim Engles. ”We did a great job sharing the ball on offense and everyone contributed. And then Ryan just got hot. We just rode him. He took great shots and made every one of them."

Woods, who shot 7-for-7 in the second half, led a trio of NJIT double-digit scores that included senior G Chris Flores (12 points) and PJ Miller (10 points). Freshman G Ky Howard added nine points with a game-high six assists and a game-high tying six rebounds.

Woods had set his prior career-high with 24 points at New Orleans on Jan. 21. He also tied the program record with six three-pointers in a game against a D-I opponent – the third time he's accomplished the feat this season. He entered the contest leading the GWC and ranking 20^th in the nation in averaging 3.0 three-pointers per game.

Junior G Pat Moore led the Raiders with 14 points and senior C John Brandenburg added 13 points. NJIT held Colgate's leading scorer, junior F Murphy Burnatowski to 11 points on 3-for-9 shooting. Burnatowski entered the game second in the Patriot League in scoring at 17.3 points per game behind Bucknell's Mike Muscala (19.0 ppg).

The Highlanders played arguably their most complete game of the season on Wednesday. After falling behind 4-0 from the start, NJIT went on an 8-0 run over the next 1:30 -- a run that was culminated by the first of Woods' trey -- and never trailed again.

Colgate managed one more tie in the game, when a three-pointer by Burnatowski knotted the score at 15-15 with 13:05 to go in the first half. But NJIT answered on a layup by Flores 57 seconds later and the Highlanders led for the remaining 32:08 of play.

Woods' second long-range bomb gave the Highlanders their first seven point lead at 24-17 with 8:35 in the stanza. His third, which concluded the scoring in the first half, provided NJIT its first nine-point lead of the game.

The Highlanders led at the break, 40-31, out-shooting the Raiders, 55.6 percent to 36.7 percent.

But in their only offensive dry spell for the game, the Highlanders didn't score in the first 3:01 of the second half. With the score 40-33, Woods then connected on his fourth and fifth three-pointers of the night  -- a quick six consecutive points that put the Highlanders up, 46-33, with 16:14 remaining.

NJIT would never have its lead trimmed to single digits. In fact, it was the sixth and final trey by Woods that enabled the lead to build to a game-high 24 points at 63-39 with 7:53 to play. The bucket was set up by a steal and an assist by Howard.

The advantage climbed to 24 on one later occasion, when sophomore F Odera Nweke took a feed from the driving Howard and flushed it home with a two-handed jam off the right baseline.

Howard continuously made big plays in the second half. He played 15 minutes in the second session during which time he tallied seven of his nine points, all six of his rebounds and five of his six assists. His final points came off a drive and an acrobatic layup in traffic. He finished despite being fouled by Moore and completed a three-point play by nailing his lone free throw of the evening.

“When Ky plays well we usually play well,” Engles said. “When he went back into the game in the second half, we told him to play faster. When he went in, he really changed the pace of the game. He got some easy baskets and found some guys. When he's playing alongside with PJ, we have two guys on the floor who can handle, pass and can really get to the rim.”

Ironic that NJIT's most “total” performance of the season came against “Colgate.” The Highlanders shot 52.6 percent (30-for-57) for the game – 53.3 percent (8-for-15) from downtown -- while holding the Raiders to 38.2 percent (18-for-47) overall. The 30 field goals and the shooting percentage were season-highs against a D-I opponent.

NJIT outrebounded Colgate, 32-29, while creating 16 turnovers to just nine of its own.

And perhaps the biggest statistical edge came under the basket, where the Highlanders outscored the Raiders, 36-12, in the paint.

“Our defensive effort was very consistent tonight,” Engles said. “We guarded the three-point line without fouling them. We also kept them out of the paint because we knew they wanted to drive the ball. And we really limited Burnatowski, who's their best player, but got into foul trouble because of what we were doing defensively.”

NJIT finished 2-1 against the Patriot League this season after previously logging a home win against Army (Dec. 11) and a road loss at Lafayette (Jan 2). Although just 4-17 all-time against PL opponents, the Highlanders have now gone 4-2 in these games over the past two seasons.

The victory also marked the second road, non-conference win of the season in NJIT's final of nine such affairs. The only other time the Highlanders achieved a pair of road, non-conference wins was in their first year in the D-I era, when they registered victories at Manhattan and at Longwood during the 2006-07 season.

NJIT returns to conference play with its final stop on a three-game road trip at Chicago State (7-16, 2-2) on Saturday. The Highlanders have defeated the Cougars in the past five meetings, including an 83-78 overtime thriller in Newark earlier this season on Jan. 12.


Write-up courtesy of Matt Provence