VILLANOVA, PA—Seventh-ranked Villanova remained undefeated thanks to a huge second-half surge that subdued visiting NJIT, 92-67, Tuesday night in men's basketball in front of a sellout crowd of 6,500 in The Pavilion and a national television audience on FOX Sports 1.
 
The Wildcats (12-0) trailed the upset-minded Highlanders (5-8) at halftime, 44-41, and the hole got a bit deeper when first Winfield Willis and then Odera Nweke scored on layups off of NJIT's half-court offense to begin the second half, with Nweke's bucket staking the visitors to a 48-41 lead with 17:46 on the clock.
 
But Villanova responded by asserting its ample skill and physical superiority, outscoring the Highlanders 51-19 in the remaining time.
 
Six different Wildcats reached double-figure scoring, topped by 17 points for redshirt junior guard Dylan Ennis, who consistently sliced through NJIT's defense on drives that created high-percentage shots, either layups or short jump shots in the paint.
 
Junior point guard Ryan Arcidiacono added a season high-tying 16 points, while big men JayVaughn Pinkston and Daniel Ochefu gave NJIT trouble around the basket on both ends of the floor.
 
Ochefu, a wide-shouldered, strong 6-foot-11 center had a double-double for the winners, finishing with 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. He made 3-of-4 shots from the field and went 7-for-8 at the foul line. He also had 3 assists.
 
Pinkston, a skilled 6-foot-7, 240-pound redshirt senior, added 12 points and 6 rebounds, Pinkston shot 10-for-12 at the foul line and blocked 3 NJIT shots.
 
The Wildcats were credited with only four blocks in the game, but the presence offered by Ochefu, Pinskton and others was such that it hampered an important element of NJIT's offense, the ability to drive for layups.
 
Villanova also had two double-figure scorers off the bench, freshman guard Phil Booth, who did not miss a shot from the field and finished with 14 points, and sophomore forward Kris Jenkjns, who finished with 11 points.
 
NJIT, which made 60 percent of its overall shots (15-of-25), including 8-for-13 from 3-point range in building the 44-41 halftime lead, dropped precipitously to 29 percent accuracy (9-of-31) in the second half, which included 2-for-10 from distance.
 
The Highlanders had four individuals in double-figure scoring led by Damon Lynn's 13 points. Tim Coleman had 12 points and added 4 assists, tying his best total against a Division I opponent. He also blocked two shots.
 
Osa Izevbuwa, a sophomore playing his first season with NJIT, had his best scoring game as a Highlander, netting 11 points, and Winfield Willis scored 10 before fouling out of the game.
 
Ky Howard, who came in as NJIT's second-leading scorer for the season, averaging 13.2 points per game, was held to a season-low 4 points. However, he passed for an NJIT Division I-record 11 assists. The previous DI record for NJIT, which is in its ninth season of DI competition, was 9 assists for PJ Miller (Class of 2013) against Chicago State on January 12, 2013.
 
Despite being considerably smaller throughout the lineup than their seventh-ranked counterparts, the Highlanders continued their habit of competitive rebounding, losing under the boards by a relatively small count of 33-29. Five different Highlanders shared the individual rebounding lead with four apiece. The co-leaders were Howard, Lynn, and Willis, the three starting guards, and senior post player Odera Nweke and redshirt freshman center Vlad Shustov, who matched his career high.
 
NJIT, which has had trouble in the points-off-turnovers department several times this season, took a hit there again against Villanova, which won the category, 23-6. A factor in NJIT's low points-off-turnovers is that you need the other team to commit turnovers in order to get points and the Highlanders, who made just one steal all night, only got six miscues out of the Wildcat offense.
 
Villanova also dominated at the foul line, taking 44 free throws and making 32, compared to 9-for-13 for the visiting Highlanders. In the second half alone, Villanova attempted 26 foul shots, twice as many as NJIT attempted in the game.
 
The visitors were whistled for 29 fouls, 19 in the second half, and in addition to Willis fouling out, Coleman, Daquan Holiday, and Shustov all finished the game with four fouls each,
 
NJIT, perhaps steeled by the memory of its 72-70 upset win at then #17/#16 Michigan on December 6, got off the canvas soon after Villanova began the game with leads of 5-0 and then 9-2 on an Ochefu layup 4:05 in. Still down 15-7 at the 14:16 mark, the Highlanders made back-to-back 3-pointers by Osevbuwa and Lynn, followed by a Willis jump shot that knotted the score, 15-15, at the 12:58 mark of the first half.
 
Nova later went up 26-20 on a Josh Hart three with 8:45 left, but after a pair of Highlanders misses, Willis drained a three to spark a 10-4 NJIT run capped by two Nweke foul shots.
 
The Wildcats, who shot 52 percent from the field (13-for-25) in the opening half, kept scoring and went back up by six 36-30 after back-to-back threes from top of the key for Jenkins.
 
But much as they had in stunning Michigan, the Highlanders continued to answer in kind, erasing the deficit and outscoring the Wildcats 7-4 over the closing 1:19 of the first half for a 44-41 lead at the break.
 
Coleman and Lynn had 10 points each to lead NJIT at the half, while Ochefu's 11 points for Villanova for game-high through the opening 20 minutes.
 
While they suffered stretches of defensive ineffectiveness in the opening half, the Highlanders managed to offset that weakness by making 15-of-25 shots, including 61.5 percent 3-point accuracy (8-13), perfect foul shooting (6-6) and just six turnovers, which led to just 5 Wildcat points in the opening half.
 
The result was 44 points, the most allowed in a single half by Villanova this season.
 
The second half began well for NJIT, as Willis scored his layup on the first possession and Villanova's first four possessions of the second half resulted in four missed shots and a turnover for the Wildcats in the opening 2:34.
 
NJIT had some missed shots, too, but Nweke's layup made it 48-41 at 17:46. It would be the biggest lead for the Highlanders who were 17-for-29 shooting with 6 turnovers to that stage. They would shoot 7-for-27 (25.9 percent) and commit 11 turnovers the rest of the way. Three-for-seven foul shooting in the second half didn't make things any easier.
 
Villanova responded to the 48-41 deficit with a 20-3 run over the ensuing 7:17, capped by two free throws for Hart at the 10:29 mark.
 
Although the Wildcats went from a Phil Booth field goal at 9:55 to a Josh Hart three at 4:59 without a bucket, they had very few empty trips, drawing NJIT fouls on all but two possessions in that time frame. The result was 10 points at the foul line in 3:22 and a lead that expanded to 77-56 on Hart's triple just under the five-minute mark.
 
Unable to trim the deficit under 21 points in the last 4:11, NJIT trailed by a game-worst 28 after a pair of foul shots by Booth with 18 seconds left. However, Highlander Rob Ukawuba drew some gasps from the crowd with a quick-twitch power dunk down the lane and then a foul shot with nine seconds left.
 
NJIT will close out its run of nine games out of 10 on the road that began back on November 24 in Milwaukee against Marquette when the Highlanders visit Lafayette in Easton, PA, on Sunday. December 28 at 2 pm.
 
While it's safe to predict that NJIT won't see another team as good as #7 Villanova on the rest of the 2014-15 schedule, the last two games of 2014 are big challenges, nonetheless.
 
Sunday's opponent, Lafayette will bring a 7-3 record into its game with the Highlanders. NJIT finally comes back home to Fleisher Family Court on December 30 for a 7 pm against Saint Francis U (6-4 overall, but 4 of the last 5 and 3 in a row).