NJIT at Yale highlights video

NEW HAVEN, CT-Leading by five points at halftime, Yale outscored visiting NJIT, 24-10, in the opening 8:16 of the second half on the way to the Bulldogs' third consecutive win, 83-65, in non-conference men's basketball Wednesday night in Yale's John J. Lee Amphitheater.

Yale (8-5) is playing its best basketball of the season after being picked to finish first in the Ivy League's preseason media poll. The Bulldogs, 22-10 a season ago, shared the Ivy League title with their archrival, Harvard, but the Crimson won the one-game playoff to represent the Ivy in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

Wednesday's night's home 18-point margin of victory is actually the smallest for the Bulldogs in their current three-game streak after they beat Central Connecticut by 20 points and Hartford by 35, both on the road, since December 30. For the season, Yale's average winning margin in its seven victories before facing NJIT was 22.7 points per game.

NJIT, which saw a two-game winning streak snapped in the last non-conference game on the schedule, falls to 9-7 with Wednesday's defeat in Connecticut.

The Highlanders, who are in their first year as members of the Atlantic Sun Conference after being the nation's only Division I Independent the previous two seasons, will begin play in the A-Sun at home on Saturday at 4 pm against USC Upstate in the second game of a men's-women's doubleheader between the two schools.

Yale (8-5) had three starters and one reserve score in double figures, paced by sophomore Makai Mason's career high-tying 24 points, which came on 8-for-15 shooting from the floor, including 4-for-8 on 3-point shots, plus a perfect 4-for-4 at the foul line.

Senior Nick Victor tossed in 16 points for the winners, connecting in 4 of 5 shots from 3-point range. Big (6-foot-9) junior Sam Downey came off the bench to make 6 of 7 shots and score 15 points, 11 of which came in the first half when he subbed for foul-troubled starter Brandon Sherrod.

The fourth Yale double-figure scorer was Bulldogs star forward Justin Sears, who scored 13 points. The strong 6-foot-8 senior who is the current Ivy League Player of the Week, an award he has won all-time record 12 times, was held under his season scoring average of 16.6 ppg.

However, the Plainfield, NJ, product responded to the defensive attention he got from the Highlanders by finding his teammates and passing for a personal career-best and game-high 7 assists. He also shared the team rebounding lead with Victor at 6.

Damon Lynn headed the scoring list for the Highlanders, dropping in 22 points, which included four 3-point baskets. Tim Coleman, whose playing time was limited to 28 minutes by foul trouble, scored 16 points and pulled down a game-high 7 rebounds to go along with a game-best 3 blocked shots. Coleman shot 6-for-8 from the field, including 3-for-4 from downtown.

Ky Howard added 10 points for the Highlanders, largely on basis of 8-for-10 shooting at the foul line. NJIT, which continues to shoot well at the line as a team, made 15 of 20 free throws.

NJIT came into Wednesday night's game having started slowly in each of the preceding three games, including the last two, which the Highlanders trailed at the half, but won with strong second halves.

The Yale game was different, with NJIT leading for the first 5:04 before Yale finally went ahead on a Downey 3-pointer that put the home team up 12-11. When Victor, another big man, drained a 3-pointer at the 13:15 mark, the Bulldogs had 9 of their first 15 points on threes.

Even so, it was a 4-point game, 22-18 for Yale, when an unfortunate play changed the flow of the game with 8:36 left in the first half,

After NJIT missed a shot, the ball rolled on the floor out from the basket toward the foul line. At least two players from each team hit the floor in the scramble to control the ball. When NJIT's Emmanuel Tselentakis, on the floor, tried to pull the ball toward him, his arm accidently slipped off the ball and struck Yale's Khaliq Ghani in the face, causing a nosebleed.

With that, the officials stopped play, reviewing the game video and, after a delay of at least 15 minutes in real time to wash the floor and confer on their ruling, they awarded two free throws, plus possession of the ball to Yale.

Ghani, the injured player, had gone to the locker room, so Jack Montague took the free throws for Yale, making both. Ky Howard of the Highlanders stole the ball on the ensuing possession, so the immediate damage from the call was minimal for NJIT.

However, the Highlanders did not show their earlier offensive flow for the first few minutes after the long delay and Yale took a 31-18 lead, with Mason's 3-pointer capping a 9-0 Bulldogs run in the 2:14 of action that followed the long stoppage.

Still trailing by 10 points after Yale's Sears made a conventional 3-point play with 2:21 left, NJIT finished the half on a 7-2 run in the last 2:08, closing the halftime gap to 38-33.

Coleman and Lynn each had 11 first-half points to lead NJIT, while Downey had 11 on 5-for-6 shooting to pace Yale.

The Bulldogs quickly extended their 5-point halftime lead coming out of the locker room early in the second half. When Downey sank a pair of free throws at the 15:11 mark, Yale had outscored the Highlanders 12-2 in the opening 4:49 of second half and pushed the lead to 50-35.

Just as important, if not more so, the foul that put Downey on the line was the seventh of the half for NJIT, meaning Yale shot at least one free throw on every Highlander foul for the rest of the game.

Yale would get into the double-bonus for the last 11:44, making it that much more difficult for NJIT to stage a comeback with the Bulldogs getting two free throws every time the Highlanders committed a foul.

Anthony Dallier made both free throws for Yale at the 11:44 mark, putting his team ahead, 62-43, and NJIT never got the deficit under 17 points the rest of the way. Yale led by a high of 23 points on two occasions in the second half, the latest at 81-58 on Mason's layup with 3:08 remaining.

Wednesday's win for Yale was partial payback for a 78-71 win by the Highlanders when the teams met last January 9 in Newark. That come-from-behind victory was one of the highlights in NJIT's record-setting 21-win season in 2014-15.

Saturday's 4 pm game vs. USC Upstate in the Fleisher Athletic Center on Alumni Day will be the first-ever men's basketball game between the Highlanders and Spartans. Indeed, NJIT has never before played any of the other seven Atlantic Sun Conference teams in men's basketball.