Game Highlights (video)

Engles and Howard Postgame Comments (Video)


NEWARK, NJ—NJIT never trailed in its 90-77 non-conference men's basketball victory over UMass Lowell, but the visiting River Hawks stirred some early second-half suspense before the Highlanders, driven by 18 second-half points from senior Winfield Willis, pulled away for their final 13-point winning  margin.
 
Willis, who finished with a game-high 23 points, was one of four Highlander starters to reach double-figure scoring, as NJIT upped its home record to 4-0 and its overall won-lost ledger to 5-3. Tim Coleman and Ky Howard scored 15 apiece for the winners, while Coleman added a game-high 8 rebounds and Howard handed out 6 assists.
 
Damon Lynn, NJIT's top scorer this season and also for the previous two seasons, played the role of facilitator Saturday, handing out a game-high 8 assists, which tied his personal career best. He added 14 points and made a game-high 3 steals on the defensive end.
 
UMass Lowell (3-4) had four double-figure scorers of its own, led by 18 points from freshman forward Josh Gantz, who set a new personal high in his seventh college game. Junior Tyler Livingston scored a season-high 14 points off the UML bench and freshman Isaac White added 11 points and a team-leading 5 assists, while Jahad Thomas and Ryan Jones each scored 10 for the River Hawks. Thomas' 6 rebounds paced UMass Lowell.
 
The only tie in Saturday's contest was 0-0 in the opening 14 seconds, but NJIT scored the game's first 6 points and led the rest of the way. Coming out hot, the Highlanders forged a 15-4 lead after Willis' conventional 3-point play less than 5 minutes in.
 
Gantz answered for the visitors with a 3-point basket on the ensuing possession, but the Highlanders kept on scoring and went up by a first-half high of 15 points, 26-11, on a Willis layup with 8:45 on the clock.
 
However, the River Hawks chipped away and eventually closed to within five points of the lead twice in the last two minutes of the first half, before Rob Ukuwuba's corner 3-pointer with 4 seconds left gave NJIT a 37-29 advantage heading into the locker room.
 
Gantz scored a game-leading 9 for UML in the opening half, while Coleman and Lynn each scored 7 to top the Highlanders through 20 minutes.
 
The visiting River Hawks, who struggled to score early as they fell behind, turned things around at the outset of the second half, especially on 3-point shots. After connecting on just 3 of their 12 first-half shots from downtown, the visitors got a three from Jones on the opening possession of the second half. Later, a rare 4-point play (3-point basket, plus a foul shot) by the slender freshman Jones trimmed his team's deficit to just 3 points, 41-38, just 2:34 into the final half.
 
NJIT, which has finished with at least 89 points in three of its four home games this season, kept adding points of its own in the face of the River Hawks surge. But UMass Lowell twice pulled to within a point of the lead, first at 49-48 after a Gantz 3-pointer and later at 51-50 with 13:24 remaining on a layup by Thomas.
 
The Highlanders answered the last threat with a 9-0 run that saw two Willis foul shots and continued with a layup by Osa Izevbuwa, a 3-pointer from Willis and two foul shots by Coleman that put NJIT on top 60-50 with 10:55 remaining.
 
The foul that enabled Coleman's two free throws was the seventh of the second half for the visitors, meaning NJIT, which came in ranked second in Division I in team free throw percentage (81.3 pct), went to the line on every UML foul over the closing 11 minutes.
 
The Highlanders, 6-for-9 shooting foul shots in the first half, made 16-of-19 (84.2 percent) from the stripe in the second half.
 
NJIT eventually regained the 15-point advantage it first held back in the opening half and the Highlanders, having withstood the early second-half charge from UMass Lowell, led by at least 10 points over the final 10:26 of the contest.
 
UMass Lowell avoided falling farther back than 15 points thanks to 9-fo-18 3-point shooting in the second half and 56.7 percent accuracy (17-for-30) on all field goal attempts in the last 20 minutes.
 
With the win, NJIT, which has faced UMass Lowell five times since December 2013, snapped a three-game slide in the head-to-head series. Both games last season were close, with UMass Lowell winning 63-61 in Newark on November 22, 2014 and again in Lowell, 71-67 on December 3, 2014.
 
Both 2014-15 losses to UMass Lowell preceded significant aspects in NJIT's season, which turned out to be the best in program history. The River Hawk win at NJIT in November, not especially noteworthy at the time, left the Highlanders with a home record of 1-1. However, NJIT won 14 of its last 15 home games, including the last three in the CollegeInsider.com postseason Tournament for a 15-2 home mark a season ago. The home court success has continued to 4-0 this season, giving the Highlanders a 19-2 record on Fleisher Family Court since November of 2014.
 
The loss at Lowell in the rematch less 11 days later dropped NJIT's season record to 2-5 at the time. But less than 72 hours after falling at UMass Lowell, the Highlanders shocked #17/#16 Michigan 72-70 on December 6, 2014. The stunning upset at Michigan captured national attention and set NJIT on a course that would see it go 19-7 through to the semifinals of the CIT and finish with a program-best 21 wins.
 
Coincidentally, Saturday's home win over UMass Lowell came 52 weeks to the day after the signature victory by the Highlanders in Michigan.
 
Now, NJIT has a quick turnaround before facing a high-quality opponent at home in Newark for a 7 o'clock game Monday night in the Fleisher Athletic Center. Monday's foe is first-time opponent Kent State, which is 4-2 after scoring a 66-62 road win Saturday afternoon at Cleveland State.
 
The Golden Flashes, who play in the respected Mid-American Conference, were 23-12 last season and played their final game against the same team (Northern Arizona) that ended NJIT's postseason run a few days later.
 
Kent State lost in the CIT quarterfinal at Northern Arizona, 74-73 in overtime, four days before the Highlanders lost the CIT semifinal to the same Lumberjacks in Flagstaff, 68-61.
 
Monday night's game vs. Kent State is the last one at home for the Highlanders before Winter Break. After hosting Kent State, NJIT will play three away games, with a break for final exams mixed in. The next home game after Monday won't come until December 28 vs. Stony Brook, yet another 2015 postseason team on the early schedule for the Highlanders.