NEWARK, NJ—Visiting Lehigh remained unbeaten to start the 2015-16 season with a convincing 75-47 victory over NJIT in the Highlanders' women's basketball home opener Thursday night in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
The Mountain Hawks (3-0) began the season with an overtime win over Monmouth and then defeated Division II Kutztown by 30 points last Sunday, before coming to Newark and overpowering NJIT (0-2).
Junior forward Lexi Martins led the way for the Mountain Hawks with 19 points and 23 rebounds, the most individual rebounds in a game for an opponent since NJIT began Division I competition in 2006-07.
In fact, Martins shattered the opponents' rebounds record by a wide margin. The old record was 17, done four times, most recently by Shaneese Bailey of Florida Atlantic last November 28. The NJIT Division I record for rebounds in a game is 18 by Rayven Johnson in the 2013 championship game of the old Great West Conference.
With Martins topping the rebounds column in the box score with 23 boards, Lehigh enjoyed a 47-22 advantage in total team rebounds.
Thursday's double-double for Martins was not out of line with what she did in the first two games this season. A second-team All-Patriot League honoree as a sophomore last year, Martins, 6-feet tall, had 21 points and 20 rebounds vs. Monmouth and 20 points and 14 rebounds against Kutztown.
Her 19 points against NJIT came on 9-for-11 shooting from the field and 1-for-2 at the foul line. Guard Quinci Mann scored 15 points and 6-foot-3 senior Kerry Kinek added 14 points to go with 9 rebounds.
The Mountain Hawks shot 57 percent from the floor, connecting on 29 of 53 shots, including 7-for-21 from 3-point distance.
The Highlanders made slightly more than a third of their shots (21-for-62), but were just 2-for-15 from distance and 3-for-6 at the foul line. All six foul shots for NJIT were taken by junior center
Leah Horton, who led her team with 15 points and 6 rebounds.
Lehigh built a 19-13 lead after the first quarter, but NJIT surged back into contention with a 6-2 start to the second quarter. Horton made two field goals and
Ronni Grandison made a jumper for the Highlanders to tighten the score to 21-19, Lehigh, with 8:11 left in the period.
Martins made a bucket for the Mountain Hawks, but
Kelly Guarino drained a 3-pointer for NJIT to pull the Highlanders within a point, 23-22, with 7:10 left.
The teams traded a couple of scores before Lehigh's Mann nailed a jump shot to trigger a 14-3 run that left Lehigh with 37-25 lead at the 2:42 mark of the quarter after four straight points from Kinek.
Maria Ruban made a jump shot for the Highlanders, but Lehigh finished with a 6-0 run in the last 56 seconds to take a 43-27 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Martins was already in the books with a double-double (13 pts, 12 rebs) in the first half and Mann had 12 points for the Mountain Hawks. Horton's 9 points were tops for NJIT.
The score was never close in the second half, as NJIT, down 16 at halftime, got as close as 12 points when Horton scored the first four points of the third quarter. But that was it and Lehigh led by 20 points, 59-39, at the end of the third quarter.
The visitors dominated the fourth quarter, doubling the Highlanders, 16-8, over the final 10 minutes. NJIT, attempting to get back in contention with 3-point shots, misfired on all five of its tries from distance in the period, which contributed to 4-for-15 shooting on all field goal tries.
The test doesn't get any easier for NJIT in its next game which will find the Highlanders taking a nine-hours plus bus ride to Huntington, WV, to take on Marshall, which is 2-0 and averaging 108.5 points per game, on Sunday at 1 pm.
Marshall edged NJIT 57-56 in their only previous meeting two seasons ago in Newark on January 5, 2014.
