Box Score


PHILADELPHIA—The University of Pennsylvania got 23 points apiece from two of its three starting guards and double-doubles from its two starting low post players in an 89-74 win over visiting NJIT Saturday night in the men's half of a women's-men's basketball doubleheader in The Palestra on Penn's campus.

The wire-to-wire win in the men's game lifted Penn's record to 4-11 as it played outside the Ivy League for the last time this season. NJIT, which got a game-high 25 points from its standout freshman Damon Lynn, drops to 8-13 with Saturday night's defeat.

The inside-outside effectiveness of Penn's offense first allowed the home team to take a big early lead and later to withstand some second-half offensive pushes by the Highlanders.

On the outside, guards Tony Hicks, a sophomore, and Miles Jackson-Cartwright, a senior, each scored 23 with similar final stat lines. Each shot 4-for-6 on 3-pointers and Jackson-Cartwright was perfect on his nine free throws, while Hicks was 7-for-9 at the line.

On the inside, 6-foot-11, 265-pound Darius Nelson-Henry, who is three inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than any Highlander, had 10 points and a game-best 11 rebounds. Fran Dougherty, also bigger than any Highlander at 6-8, 225, added 10 points and 10 rebounds. With those two showing the way, the Quakers had an overwhelming team advantage in total rebounds, 46-29.

None of the individual totals for the Penn leaders were particularly out of line with their previous numbers. Hicks (23 points) came in averaging 15 points and scored 33 earlier in the season. Jackson-Cartwright (23 points) was averaging 11 points, but he has 1,254 career points.

Nelson-Henry (10 points, 11 rebounds) was averaging 12.7 points and 6.8 rebounds and Dougherty (10 points, 10 rebounds) was getting 12 points and 7 rebounds.

NJIT's Lynn pumped in 25 points in an effort that included 7-for-11 shooting from 3-point distance. Lynn's seven threes were the second-most ever for the Highlanders in a Division I game, exceeded only by his school-record nine exactly one week earlier at North Carolina A&T. He's one of the most prolific shooters in the nation from distance, coming into the Penn contest tied for fifth in the nation, averaging 3.75 3-pointers made per game.

The other double-figure scorer for the Highlanders against Penn was sophomore Ky Howard, who netted 16 points, 12 of which came in the second half, playing in his hometown. Howard's 16 points Saturday were one shy of his career-best 17, which he did twice earlier this season, once vs. Central Connecticut and once vs. LIU Brooklyn.

Two Highlanders, Terrence Smith and Montana Mayfield added nine points each, while Smith topped NJIT with six rebounds and Mayfield, like Howard, a Philadelphia product, had a game-high six assists. Mayfield's points and assists totals were new career highs for the freshman, topping the 8 points and 5 assists he had in the previous game at North Carolina A&T.

As the two primary point guards for the Highlanders, Howard and Mayfield were productive, combining for 25 points and 10 assists, although they were on the court at the same time for stretches, so their production wasn't all from the point guard spot.

Despite the double-digit loss on the scoreboard and the lopsided rebounding deficit, NJIT held its own in other areas, particularly in points-off-turnovers, a column the Highlanders "won", 22-6, as they committed 10 turnovers to 18 for the Quakers.

Another category that required a closer look was the one that showed NJIT with 22 points in the paint to 20 for Penn. Those totals don't reflect all the points the Quakers scored on foul shots awarded the Quakers because the Highlanders fouled trying to hold position on defense or box out on the bigger Penn post players. Specifically the huge Nelson-Henry, who spends the entire offensive part of the game close to the basket, didn't make a basket from the floor. But he got 10 points from the foul line, where he shot 10-for-13. However, those don't strictly register as "points in the paint", even though they grew out of his post presence.

Nelson-Henry not withstanding, fouls and foul shooting were a big part of the game, as the officials blew their whistles for 59 combined fouls (31 on NJIT and 28 on Penn) and the teams took a combined 74 free throws. The Quakers were 35-for-42 (83.3 percent), including 26-for-31 in the second half, which made NJIT's comeback prospects more daunting, despite a generally more intense effort by the Highlanders over the final 20 minutes.

In starting the season with a 6-4 record, the Highlanders led at the half seven times and only once did they trail by more than four points at the break.

Lately, however, slow starts have put NJIT in deep holes. The Highlanders have trailed by double-figure halftime deficits in four of their last five Division I games and the only exception was the game at Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania, when NJIT trailed by five and eventually came back to win by eight.

The first half at Penn was no exception to the recent unhappy trend. With 2:17 still to play in the opening half, the Quakers more than doubled the Highlanders, 45-22, before a late NJIT spurt, including a triple by Lynn ahead of the halftime buzzer closed the score to 47-32, still a 15-point lead,

As a team, Penn made 8-of-10 3-pointers, including 4-for-5 for Jackson-Cartwright, who went into the locker room with 17 first-half points. The first-half rebounding for Penn was an overwhelming 26-11, including limiting the Highlanders to two offensive rebounds, creating a lot of one-and-done possessions for NJIT which shot 9-for-26 (34.6 percent) in the opening period.

The second half was a tie on the scoreboard, 42-42, and even the rebounds were 18 for NJIT to 20 for Penn, with six offensive rebounds for the Highlanders helping them to an 8-1 lead in second-chance points in the second half.

With all that, however, the 15-point halftime deficit was just too much to overcome, especially with Penn awarded 31 second-half free throws and making 26 of them.

The Highlanders got to within 10 at 47-37 on a Lynn triple with 17:17 left, But Hicks made four free throws for Penn before NJIT could get closer.

Falling back by 19, 57-38, after two Nelson-Henry foul shots for the Quakers, NJIT chipped back to within 11 on a Lynn foul shot with 9:28 left. But Nelson-Henry picked up two foul shots 24 seconds later and Penn pushed its lead back to 16 at the 8:44 mark on an old-school 3-point play for Hicks.

The Highlanders kept coming and trimmed the deficit to single-digits at 72-63 on two foul shots by Howard with 4:25 left. Later, at the 3:12 mark, Winfield Willis (6 points, all in the second half) made the score 74-67.

But, with NJIT pressing full court as it had for much of the second half, Willis was whistled for a foul before the ball was inbounded and Jackson-Cartwright nailed the ensuing free throws to spark a 10-0 Penn run in less than two minutes that settled matters completely.

Next up is another road game, the eighth away in nine contests for the Highlanders going back more than a month to December 23.

NJIT will take on first-time opponent Delaware State on Monday night at 7:30 in Dover.