Box Score
POST GAME INTERVIEW

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT graduate student Shakia Robinson scored 10 points in each half for a game-high 20, as the Highlanders easily defeated neighboring Rutgers-Newark, 71-42, in women's basketball Monday night in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Robinson connected on 8-for-13 from the field and had 7 rebounds and 4 steals in 24 minutes to lead the Highlanders (6-20). Robinson, who played three seasons at the University of Massachusetts before using her final year of playing eligibility this year as grad student with the Highlanders, raised her career scoring total to 978 points between the two schools. She has two career games remaining to reach the coveted 1,000-point career plateau.
 
The only other double-figure scorer for NJIT against Rutgers-Newark (10-14) was senior Uju Nwankwo, who finished with 12 points and a Highlander-leading 8 rebounds. Nwankwo, who is NJIT's career leader in blocked shots, rejected five Scarlet Raiders shots, lifting her career mark to 176.
 
In all, NJIT had 15 blocked shots in the game, with the five from Nwankwo, five from Nicole Maticka (who has 158 blocks in her career and who returned to action for the first time after missing 15 games since December 5 due to a foot injury) and four blocks from Martina Matejcikova. A junior wing player, Matejcikova also generated 6 rebounds, 2 steals and a career-best 8 assists.
 
The only non-Division I opponent on the NJIT schedule, Rutgers-Newark's campus faces part of the NJIT campus on a several-block stretch divided by Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard in Newark's University Heights area.
 
The defeat against its only Division I opponent drops Division III Rutgers-Newark to 10-14 on the season. The Scarlet Raiders got a team-leading 11 points off the bench from freshman forward Jasmine Lombard.
 
Junior post player Jade Howard, who came in leading the active Rutgers-Newark players in scoring (14.3 points per game) and rebounding (9.6 per game), finished with 9 points and a game-high 9 rebounds. She was limited to 9 minutes in the first half, due to foul trouble, but played 16 foul-free second-half minutes, when she pulled down eight of her game-high nine caroms. Howard shared the team lead in assists (3) and paced Rutgers-Newark with three steals.
 
Howard, Sharee Gordon, and Arianna Williams each blocked a pair of shots for the visitors.
 
NJIT, which won the game by 29 points, dominated in key areas including: points in the paint (48-20), where Robinson did most of her damage; points-off-turnovers (23-10), as the visitors were punished for committing 23 turnovers; and, fast-break points (24-2), as the Scarlet Raiders were consistently beaten back down the floor in transition defense, particularly after NJIT steals and blocked shots.
 
The Highlanders scored the game's first four points, thanks to a Nwankwo jump shot and a pair of free throws for Robinson. But Rutgers-Newark responded with a jumper from Howard and a layup from Gordon, tying the score at 4-4 and prompting NJIT coach Steve Lanpher to take a timeout with 17:23 left in the first half.
 
Robinson produced two layups in a span of 23 seconds at 16:58 and 16:35, respectively, sparking an 11-0 run for the Highlanders before Lombard's layup added two more points for the Scarlet Raiders with 12:41 left in the half.
 
NJIT responded with another big run, 16-2, bringing the total spurt to 27-2 and pushing the Highlanders' lead to 31-8 after a fast-break layup by Robinson at the 5:49 mark of the opening half.
 
To its credit, Rutgers-Newark staged a 7-0 run of its own and held its own over the last six minutes of the opening half, scoring 16 points, while holding NJIT to 10.
 
With the Highlanders on top at the break, 41-24, fueled by a 25-6 advantage in the paint and 17-4 on points-off-turnovers, the halftime scoring leader was NJIT's Robinson with 10 points, followed by eight points from Nwankwo. Jamie Cejour-Mobley, a 4-foot-11 freshman guard, paced Rutgers-Newark in the half with five points.
 
NJIT, which led by as many as 23 in the first half before going into the locker room up 17, got its advantage back to 20 on the first of two made free throws by Nwankwo at the 15:07 mark which put the Highlanders on top 48-27.
 
Rutgers-Newark chipped the deficit back to 17 at 48-31 when Howard made a layup with 12:01 remaining, but NJIT ran off eight unanswered points in the next 2:21 to go ahead by 25, 56-31.
 
Later, Williams made a layup for the Scarlet Raiders, but Alana Dudley drained the Highlanders' only successful 3-pointer of the second half and a Robinson steal and layup gave NJIT a 61-33 advantage with 8:43 left.
 
An old-school 3-point play by Robinson gave NJIT what would be its largest lead of the night, 29 points, 64-35, with 7:30 left. Rutgers-Newark did not get closer than 24 of the night and Denisa Domiterova and Camerin Spahn each made layups in the last 27 seconds, enabling the Highlanders to match their biggest lead of the night with the 71-42 final.
 
With the schedule winding down, NJIT is slated to visit Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, on Saturday at 2 pm (CST). Incarnate Word,a  private Catholic University with an enrollment of over 8,000 students, is reclassifying to NCAA Division I from Division II. The Cardinals, who are not yet eligible for postseason play in Division I, are 8-15 this season. They will play the Highlanders for the first time in any sport on Saturday.