Game Highlights (Video)
NEWARK, NJ--Lipscomb scored its third consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference men's basketball win, toppling NJIT 81-72 Wednesday night in the Fleisher Athletic Center in a game whose start was delayed nearly an hour due to gridlocked rush hour traffic in downtown Newark.
With Wednesday's victory, Lipscomb, from Nashville, Tennessee, has evened its A-Sun record to 3-3. The Bisons, who lost eight in a row between December 12 and January 16, have now won their last three to go to 7-16 overall.
Garrison Matthews, a 6-foot-5 freshman guard, was game-high scorer with 19 points for Lipscomb. He also paced the winners with 9 rebounds and added 4 assists for the Bisons, who were credited with assists on 20 of their 26 baskets on the night.
Sophomore guard Nathan Morrison came off the visitors' bench to score 18, all of them coming on 6-for-15 shooting from 3-point distance. Morrison, who is 5-foot-9, had a game-leading 7 assists without a turnover and also led his team with 4 steals.
Cam Miller (12 points), Eli Pepper (11 points), and JC Hampton (10 points) were also double-figure scorers for Lipscomb.
The loss Wednesday dropped NJIT to 2-4 in its first season as a member of the Atlantic Sun and the Highlanders are back at .500 (11-11) overall.
Juniors
Damon Lynn and
Tim Coleman each scored 17 points to share the NJIT scoring lead, followed by
Ky Howard, with 14 points, and
Rob Ukawuba, who scored 13.
Terrence Smith, who started in all of NJIT's first 21 games, was unavailable against Lipscomb, opening the door for
Mohamed Bendary's first college start.
The 6-foot-9 freshman, who scored a career-high 16 points on 8-for-10 shooting in the last game vs. North Florida, did not score against Lipscomb, due, in part, to four personal fouls in just 10 minutes of action. He did, however, come down with 5 rebounds, while blocking a pair of shots.
NJIT had a 39-33 advantage in total rebounds, led by 9 rebounds from Howard, who also had 6 assists. Senior Emmanuel Tselentankis contirbuted a season-best 8 boards..
Two statistics that tipped the scales in Lipscomb's favor Wednesday were its 15 3-point field goals made on offense and the fact that it held NJIT to 38 percent shooting (24-for-63) on the defensive end.
The Bisons made 8 first-half threes and 7 in the second half, as seven different men made shots from downtown. Lipscomb's 15 3-pointers came three days after North Florida scorched the Highlanders for 20 3-point baskets.
NJIT's shooting percentage vs. Lipscomb was its lowest in nearly a month, going back to when the Highlanders shot 39 percent in a non-conference loss to Stony Brook on December 28.
NJIT began the night with just two of its Game One starters-Howard and Lynn-on the floor at tipoff vs. Lipscomb and it was apparent within a few minutes that the Highlanders needed to claw for points in order to stay in contention.
The Highlanders took an early 4-3 lead, but they were down 15-7 on Matthews' second 4-point play (3-pointer, plus free throw) for Lipscomb at the 13:50 mark of the opening half.
Lipscomb later took its biggest lead of the opening half, 11 points, when a dunk by Pepper made the score 31-20 with 5:33 remaining.
NJIT closed the gap to 37-31 with 1:42 left, but JJ Butler's three sent the teams into the locker room at halftime with the Bisons holding a 40-31 advantage.
Lipscomb's Matthews had 10 points at the half, while Ukawuba, normally NJIT's sixth man, had 9 first-half points in his first start of the season.
NJIT began the second half well, scoring the first 9 points and knotting the score at 40-40 after Lynn's 3-pointer with 16:17 left.
The teams jockeyed for the lead and a layup for Ukawuba staked the home team to a 56-54 advantage with 10:13 remaining, However, Lipscomb came up with a 10-2 run in 2:10 and never trailed again. The decisive rally was aided by two baskets off of steals and capped by Moran's 3-pointer that gave his team a 64-56 lead with 8:03 left.
The Highlanders made a 5-0 run of their own to get to 66-63 on Howard's drive to the rim with 6:08 left, but that was as close as they got before losing 81-72.
Having won one of three games on the home stand that ended with Wednesday's loss, NJIT will play its next two away from home, visiting Kennesaw State in a 4:30 pm contest on Saturday in Georgia, followed by a quick rematch against Lipscomb in Nashville on Monday. February 1, in a 6:30 pm (CST) start.
