Box Score

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NEWARK, NJ—NJIT scored 51 points in the first half and 48 in the second, coming away with a 99-60 men's basketball win over visiting City College of New York Monday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The win for the Highlanders was their second in a row, lifting their season record to 8-10. CCNY, which plays in the City University of New York Athletic Conference, drops to 3-8 with the defeat.
 
NJIT put six players in double-figure scoring led by freshman Jake Duncan, who came off the bench for a career-high 20 points, 15 of which came in the second half. Duncan shot 8-for-12 from the field, including 4-for-7 on 3-point tries.
 
Four Highlanders scored 12 points each: sophomore starter Terrence Smith, who shot 5-for-7 and grabbed 8 rebounds; junior Odera Nweke, who made his first start of the season and produced career highs in points and rebounds (15); Ky Howard, who shot 8-for-9 at the foul line and dished out 5 assists in 20 minutes; and, Winfield Willis, who had a game-high 6 assists to go with his 12 points.
 
Damon Lynn, playing a season-low 24 minutes, added 10 points, including a rare 4-point play and raised his season total of 3-pointers to 62 through 18 games of his freshman season.
 
Also noteworthy, Rob Ukawuba saw his first college game action, netting 6 points and 3 assists in 12 minutes. Ukawuba, a high-flying freshman who is learning to play guard after being more of an interior player in high school, christened his college career with a powerful dunk down the lane 36 seconds after he reported into the game.
 
The only double-figure scorer for City College was its best player, junior Anthony Lewis, who was team-high in points (11), rebounds (8), and steals (3). Lewis, a junior, came in averaging 21.2 points and 10.1 rebounds through the first 10 games for the Beavers, who compete in the City University of New York Athletic Conference.
 
Lewis did all of his scoring from in close, but four of his teammates hit a pair of 3-pointers each. They were: Nathan Lopez (8 points); Damian Okon (6); Jordan Gonzalez (6); and, Francis Kalinski (6). As a team, CCNY shot a respectable 9-for-28 (32.1 percent) from downtown. Lopez, who played 17 minutes as a reserve, paced CCNY with 4 assists.
 
With Nweke's 15 boards leading the way, NJIT dominated the backboards against the smaller opponents, 53-24. After Lewis, no CCNY player got more than three rebounds.
 
Not surprisingly, NJIT had a 40-16 bulge on points in the paint and 20-5 on second-chance points. Points-off-turnovers were the only even stat at 11-11.
 
Monday's win over City gave the Highlanders a 3-0 lead in the all-time series vs. City College. The teams first met in 1986-87 when both programs were in NCAA Division III and the Highlanders won 108-67. Last season, with NJIT now playing in Division I, the Highlanders were 71-43 winners. They are 16-0 against non-Division I teams since moving to the top level in 2006-07
 
NJIT held a 51-29 lead at the half, paced by 10 points each for Smith, Nweke and Howard. Willis added 9 points for the Highlanders. NJIT also had a first-half rebounding lead of 29-13 team, headed by Nweke's 9 in 16 minutes of action. Smith, who would play only four second-half minutes, pulled down 6 caroms for the Highlanders in the opening half.
 
CCNY had 7 points and 7 rebounds from Lewis at the break. Lopez and Okon each came off the City bench to hit a pair of 3-point shots, giving them 6 points apiece.
 
The Highlanders, who never trailed, scored the game's first five points in the opening 2:23 and extended their lead to double-figures by the middle of the opening half. Their biggest margin in the first half was 24 points following a Smith layup 39 seconds before the halftime buzzer. Lewis hit a pair of free throws for the Beavers with three seconds remaining to arrive at the 51-29 halftime score.
 
Among the five NJIT starters, Nweke's 9 minutes in the second half were the most and three of the starters played four minutes each. That opened the door for some added playing time among the reserves, with four of them playing at least 12 minutes and three playing at least 16.
 
They responded to the chance and extended the lead to as many as 46 points, 94-48, when Ukawuba drove along the baseline and kicked the ball into the right corner to Duncan, who drained a 3-pointer with 3:11 remaining.
 
The Highlanders will go back out on the road for their next four games, beginning with a trip to North Carolina later this week. NJIT will face North Carolina Central in Durham on Thursday at 7 pm and then visit North Carolina A&T in Greensboro on Saturday at 7 pm.
 
NCCU is 9-5 after beating Bethune Cookman in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game Monday night in Daytona Beach, FL.
 
North Carolina A&T, finished last season 20-17 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division I Tournament. One of the Aggies' victories was 76-71 over the Highlanders in Newark on December 13, 2012. This season they are 4-12, including a Monday night loss at Florida A&M, 76-66. Their next game is against NJIT on Saturday.