WORCESTER, MA—Holy Cross outscored visiting NJIT in the second half, 48-36, and the Crusaders went on to a 76-66 victory in men's basketball Friday night in the Hart Center.
 
Senior Justin Burrell led Holy Cross (5-3) with 18 points that included 10-for-10 shooting at the foul line, eight of which came late in the second half. Classmate Malcolm Miller added 17 points and he, too, was perfect at the foul line, going 8-for-8 from the stripe. And Malachi Alexander came off the Holy Cross bench for 13 points. He was 7-for-8 at the foul line.
 
Indeed, the biggest difference between the two teams came in foul shooting, where Holy Cross connected on 31 of its 37 attempts, good for an 83.8 percent rate.
 
NJIT (4-6) struggled at the foul line, making just 18 of 32 attempted free throws. Included in the 14 missed foul shots were three front-end attempts in one-and-one bonus opportunities in the first half. In effect, the Highlanders left as many as 17 points at the foul line in a game they trailed by 10 points at the final buzzer.
 
The Highlanders came in having won three of the last four, including the program's first-ever win over a team from the Atlantic 10 Conference (Duquesne) and a stunning 72-70 upset at #17/#16 Michigan last Saturday, followed by a 68-66 home victory over St. Francis Brooklyn in front of a standing room only home crowd on Tuesday night.
 
NJIT lost at Holy Cross despite a career-best and game-high 23 points from junior guard Ky Howard, whose previous personal-best was 17 points, done most recently in the win at Michigan six days earlier. Howard, who shot 7-for-8 from the field and 8-for-11 at the foul line Friday, also handed out a game-best five assists.
 
Damon Lynn finished with 14 points for the Highlanders and Tim Coleman added 10, nine of which came in the second half.
 
NJIT, which had thrived on scoring balance in its recent run of success, had the three double-figure scorers, but the rest of the lineup generated a combined 19 points, eight of which came from sophomore Rob Ukawuba, who accounted for two-thirds of NJIT's bench scoring.
 
The total team rebounds were close—32-31 in favor of Holy Cross, led by six for Alexander, while three Highlanders—Coleman, Ukawuba, and Daquan Holiday--grabbed four rebounds apiece.
 
Coming off the successive emotional and draining victories over Michigan and St. Francis, NJIT had its way early at Holy Cross, taking a 10-3 at the 14:29 mark of the opening half.
 
The Crusaders did not reach double-figure points until a Miller 3-pointer trimmed the Highlander lead to 15-11 at the 9:07 mark, but the game would be close the rest of the first half that ended with a 30-28 NJIT lead.
 
The margin was down to a slim two points at the break despite the fact that the Highlanders made 45 percent of their field goal attempts (9-20) and the Crusaders were shooting a poor 29.8 percent (8-27) from the field.
 
The disparity in foul shooting accuracy played a big role in the tightness of the halftime score. Holy Cross was 7-for-8 at the line in the opening 20 minutes, while NJIT was 6-for-11, including the 0-for-3 on fronts of one-and-one chances.
 
Miller of Holy Cross and NJIT's Lynn shared the first-half scoring lead, with 11 points each.
 
The score stayed close for a long time, with neither team leading by more than three points until just past the mid-point of the second half.
 
Miller made two free throws for the Crusaders to break a 48-48 tie at the 9:27 mark and those two foul shots sparked a 7-0 Holy Cross run in a span of 1:25.
 
Howard broke the run for NJIT with a driving layup, but then the Crusaders strung together five more unanswered points and NJIT never got closer than seven points of the lead over the final 6:19.
 
Burrell made all eight of his free throws in the final 2:12 to help extinguish NJIT's designs on a late comeback.
 
NJIT will be back in action on short rest, visiting LIU Brooklyn in a 3:30 start Sunday afternoon. LIU Brooklyn leads the all-time series 4-3, including 3-0 in NJIT's Division I era, which began in 2006-07. The Blackbirds beat the Highlanders 96-93 last December 12 in Newark.