Game Highlights ESPN3 (Video)


DeLAND, FL-After opening its membership in the Atlantic Sun Conference with two razor-thin losses, the NJIT men's basketball team left little to chance in its first conference win on Saturday, a wire-to-wire 71-59 victory over Stetson in a game NJIT led by 20 at halftime.

The Highlanders (10-9, 1-2 A-Sun) snapped a season-worst 3-game losing streak with an effort that saw them ahead by at least 12 points and by as many as 24 from the 4:44 mark of the first half to the end of the contest.

In the two previous conference games, they lost to USC Upstate, 80-78, on a tip-in with less than a second left on the clock and next, they rallied from down 21 points to force overtime with two free throws with less than a second left in regulation, only to lose in OT at Florida Gulf Coast, 82-78.

Saturday at Stetson (7-12, 1-2 A-Sun) there was no such suspense, as NJIT outperformed the home team in nearly every statistical category.

Tim Coleman led all scorers with 21 points for NJIT, shooting 7-for-13 from the floor, including 3-for-5 from 3-point distance. The junior forward also made 4 of 5 free throws and had 8 rebounds, while being one of five NJIT players with exactly 3 assists.

Damon Lynn, who averaged 21.5 points in his previous four games, was slightly off that with 15 points vs. Stetson, but he shot 6-for-14 from the field and came down with a career-best 10 rebounds, 9 on the defensive end of the court, where keeping opponents off the boards has been an issue in recent Highlander losses.

As a consequence of his career rebounding high, Lynn, the record-setting scorer, notched his first career double-double with his 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Chris Jenkins was another big contributor in Saturday's win, playing 28 minutes as a reserve and finishing with 14 points, 12 of which came on 3-point shots, where he was 4-for-10.

As a team, NJIT made 12 3-point baskets, four from Jenkins, three each from Coleman and Lynn, and two from Ky Howard, who did not miss from downtown. Howard finished with 9 points and Terrence Smith, whose playing time was limited by four personal fouls, added 8 points, as he made 4 of 5 shots.

The native Floridian has recently gotten closer to the form that made him third in the nation in field goal percentage (.629) as a sophomore in 2013-14. He missed all of last season following foot surgery and, after being unable to compete or even go all-out in practice for an entire year, Smith had an up-and-down beginning to this season. But he has made 22 of 28 shots (79 percent) over the 5 games since the calendar flipped to 2016.

Stetson, which topped USC Upstate (the team that nipped NJIT last Saturday) in the Hatters' previous game on Thursday, had three double-figure scorers against the Highlanders, with freshman Derick Newton and redshirt sophomore Luke Doyle each notching 13 points and sophomore Divine Myles adding 10 points.

Newton, who scored a career-high 30 points in Stetson's win over USC Upstate on Thursday, shot 3-for-11 from the field against NJIT, but was 6-for-6 at the foul line, where the Stetson team made 19 of 26, compared to 7-for-13 by the Highlanders.

NJIT had been outrebounded by double-digit margins in its first two A-Sun games (by 11 vs. Upstate and by 10 at FGCU), But with the 5-foot-11 Lynn's 10 rebounds in the lead, the Highlanders had 36 boards vs. Stetson to 33 for the Hatters, who got 9 rebounds each from junior Brian Pegg and freshman Leo Goodman.

Stetson came into Saturday's first-ever game between the schools averaging 81.4 points per game and had reached the 90-point mark six times and topped 100 twice. But NJIT took control on Saturday by holding the Hatters to 19 points in a first half that ended with the Highlanders on top, 39-19, marking the first time in seven games that the Highlanders have taken a lead into the locker room at halftime.

NJIT, which had been undermined by slow starts in the preceding six games, jumped on top 10-2 at Stetson, with six of the early points coming on 3-pointers by Lynn in the first four minutes.

Seven straight Stetson points on a pair of Newton layups sandwiched around a Doyle 3-pointer, got the Hatters to within a point, at 10-9 with 13:46 left in the opening half. But Jenkins and Smith answered for NJIT with layups and Lynn followed with another 3-pointer for a 7-0 response from the Highlanders.

Stetson's Myles made the second of two free throws to cut the NJIT lead to 17-10 with 8:39 left in the half before Coleman's 3-pointer pushed the Highlander lead to double digits six seconds later.

The Highlanders pushed their advantage to 14 after a dunk by Smith gave them a 26-12 lead with 6:29 remaining in the opening half.

A brief Stetson rally, capped by Goodman's 3-pointer, sliced the visitors' lead to 28-19 with 5:04 left, but NJIT stormed to a 10-0 finish that included a pair of threes from Jenkins and one from Howard for a 39-19 lead at the break.

The Highlanders soon took what would be their biggest lead of the game when Emmanuel Tselentakis scored a layup to make the score 44-20 with 17:27 on the clock.

NJIT was safe the rest of the way and held a 69-52 advantage after Coleman made two foul shots with 1:07 left. Stetson, scrambling to get closer until the final seconds, added 7 points in the last 53 seconds to get the final margin down to 12 points, 71-59.

Having completed their first two-game road trip as members of the Atlantic Sun, the Highlanders will play their next three games in the A-Sun at home, starting with a 7 pm affair on Thursday against Jacksonville in the Fleisher Athletic Center.

The Dolphins (10-10, 2-1 A-Sun) hosted and defeated Lipscomb, 76-73, in an A-Sun game Saturday night.