Game Preview (Video)


KENNESAW, GA-With the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season men's basketball schedule reaching its midpoint, NJIT headed south needing a win to stay relevant in the A-Sun standings and that's exactly what the Highlanders accomplished late Saturday afternoon, as they topped Kennesaw State, 75-67.

Damon Lynn, NJIT's junior guard, led the Highlanders (12-11; 3-4 A-Sun) with a game-high 22 points, with 19 coming in the second half. Lynn, who missed his only first-half foul shot, came up big at the line in the second half, making 11 of 12 attempts there, including seven in the last 5:42 to help snuff out KSU's comeback hopes.

In addition to Lynn, the Highlanders got 17 points from their sixth man Rob Ukawuba and 12 points apiece from Tim Coleman and Chris Jenkins.

Coleman added game-high totals of 7 rebounds and 5 assists and shot 5-for-6 at the foul line, while Jenkins got his points on 4-for-9 shooting from 3-point distance.

Kennesaw State (6-17; 2-5 A-Sun) got the majority of its scoring from star guards Yonel Brown and Kendrick Ray, who combined for 34 of KSU's 67 points.

Brown, a 5-foot-9 senior, played all 40 minutes against NJIT and finished with 19 points and Ray, a 6-foot-1 redshirt junior who hails from upstate New York, ended with 15 points. Ray, limited to 9 minutes' action in the first half due to foul trouble, played the entire second half and got 13 of his points after the halftime break.

That the majority of Kennesaw State's points would come from the backcourt duo was not a surprise, since they came in as the only Owls averaging double-figure points for the season (Ray, 18.6 ppg; Brown, 18.2 ppg) and were second and third, respectively, on the A-Sun individual scoring leader board.

No one likes to be saddled with the term "must-win" ahead of a game and the way college basketball is structured there really isn't quite such a thing as a must-win in the regular season, since all conferences but one (the Ivy League) determine their champion and NCAA Tournament representative in postseason conference tournaments.

Still, NJIT, which is in its first season as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, has pride at stake as it tries to earn the respect of its seven new A-Sun opponents.

Never having played any of the Atlantic Sun teams before this season, NJIT was nonetheless voted third in the conference coaches' preseason poll, based largely on its strong showing last season, when it won 21 games, including an upset of #17/#16 Michigan and capped the year with a run to the semifinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

In winning those program-record 21 games, the Highlanders were an extremely impressive 15-2 in home games. With the nucleus of last year's team back, most Highlander fans expected their strength at home to carry over into this season. And it did early on, as NJIT won its first four home games and went 5-2 in pre-conference home games.

However, once A-Sun play began, the expected home court firewall has not been there. It began with an 80-78 loss to USC Upstate in the home opener and then, after a home win, NJIT fell at home vs. defending A-Sun champ North Florida and then vs. Lipscomb to begin the first round through the A-Sun at 2-4, including 1-3 at home.

As a result, the Highlanders have been forced to stay in the hunt by producing on the road, where, says conventional wisdom, it's much more difficult to win than it is at home.

Instead, NJIT has defied the conventional and Saturday's win in Georgia boosted the Highlanders to 2-1 in A-Sun away games. They lost their first conference away game at Florida Gulf Coast, one of the league's top teams, falling 82-78 in overtime. Since then, NJIT has a decisive road win at Stetson and now, the hard-fought victory at Kennesaw State.

The Highlanders, who have been troubled by slow starts in many of their defeats going back to mid-December, stayed away from early trouble with a strong opening at Kennesaw State and when Lynn drained a 3-pointer for the Highlanders near the halfway mark of the opening half, they were on top of the Owls, 27-8.

Reeling, but still upright, Kennesaw State rallied for an 18-2 run of its own and trailed 29-26 after a fast-break layup by the speedy Brown with 3:51 left in the opening half.

NJIT answered with five points, to go up 34-26, but Kosta Jankovic hit a 3-pointer for KSU, bringing the halftime score to 34-29.

For the Highlanders, Jenkins, a transfer who has emerged as a 3-point threat, hit three of them to top his team's scoring in the first half with 9 points. Meanwhile, Brown, Jordan Jones, and Jankovic all had 6 points each for the Owls.

The visitors used a solid second-half start to take a 41-33 lead after Lynn canned a pair of free throws with 16:16 remaining.

However, Kennesaw State staged another comeback, using a 10-2 run in 2:19 to forge a 43-43 tie after Ray Kendrick's jump shot with 13:57 left.

NJIT, which never trailed in its first two A-Sun wins over Stetson and Jacksonville and hadn't trailed at Kennesaw State, either, broke the 43-43 tie on a layup from Ukawuba, before Lynn and Coleman each connected on two free throws, with Coleman's second giving his team a 49-43 lead just past the halfway point of the second half.

The Highlanders extended their advantage to 64-54 on Coleman's 3-point basket with 3:09 left and they later led by 10 on four separate occasions in the last 1:28 before finishing with the 75-67 victory.

With the win at Kennesaw State, NJIT has its sixth road victory of 2015-16, matching the program's high for away victories since beginning Division I competition in 2006-07.

The Highlanders posted 6 away wins in both 2013-14 and 2014-15 and have four more road games left on the regular season schedule, including Monday night, when they visit Lipscomb in Nashville, TN. That game starts at 6:30 pm (Central Standard Time).

The game at Lipscomb is a quick rematch, coming five days after the teams went at it Newark, where the Bisons prevailed, 81-72.