Game Highlights (Video)


NASHVILLE, TN--Things couldn't have turned out much better Monday night for the NJIT men's basketball team, which scored a wire-to-wire 90-78 Atlantic Sun Conference win at Lipscomb and got help elsewhere in the A-Sun, thanks to losses by two of the three teams ahead of the Highlanders in the conference standings.

Powered by 16-for-29 shooting (55.2 percent) from 3-point distance, NJIT generated 90 points Monday night, its most in eight Atlantic Sun games and the most since it scored a season-high 92 points in an overtime win at St. Francis Brooklyn back on December 10.

Monday's total of 16 3-pointers was just two short of NJIT's program record 18, set vs. Longwood on February 25, 2012.

With Monday's victory at Lipscomb, NJIT is 13-11 overall and 4-4 in the Atlantic Sun, including an impressive 3-1 in A-Sun away games. The Highlanders lost their first-ever conference away game at Florida Gulf Coast, 82-78 in overtime, but they have rallied to win their next three A-Sun road games. NJIT has not trailed at any time in those road wins or in its home Atlantic Sun win over Jacksonville.

The victory at Lipscomb was NJIT's seventh away win overall, setting a new program record for away victories in a season with three more left on the schedule. The Highlanders had won six away contests in each of the previous two seasons.

Damon Lynn again came up big for the Highlanders, scoring a game-high 26 points, his most in an A-Sun game, in the win over Lipscomb in an effort that included 5-for-11 on 3-pointers and 7-for-7 at the foul line. Lynn added 5 steals on the defensive end. He has scored at least 20 in five of the eight conference contests.

Behind Lynn, the Highlanders got 15 points apiece from Chris Jenkins and Rob Ukawuba, both of whom played as reserves. Jenkins shot 5-for-8 on 3-pointers and has made 12  threes in the last three games. Ukawuba made all three of his tries from distance and shot 6-for-9 from the floor overall. He has scored 45 points in the last three games.

Tim Coleman scored 14 to round out the double-figure scorers for NJIT and he has reached double-digit scoring in 13 consecutive games.

Ky Howard joins the 1,000-point club
Senior point guard Ky Howard did not reach double-figure scoring, finishing with 9 points. But it was a milestone scoring night for him, nonetheless, as he now has 1,002 career points and becomes the fifth Highlander to surpass 1,000 points since the program began Division I competition in 2006-07.

The previous four are: Jheryl Wilson (Class of 2011, 1,359 points); Isaiah Wilkerson (Class of 2012, 1,577); Chris Flores (Class of 2013, 1,724) and current teammate Damon Lynn (Class of 2017, 1,511).

Howard, NJIT's all-time program assists leader, had a team-leading 7 assists Monday vs. Lipscomb, upping his career total to 367.

Lipscomb, which had won three in a row after it defeated NJIT 81-72 last Wednesday in Newark, has lost two in a row since. The Bisons dropped a 92-91 decision at home vs. USC Upstate over the weekend and then the home loss to NJIT in the quick rematch. With the defeat, Lipscomb drops to 3-5 in the A-Sun, a game behind the Highlanders, and to 7-18 overall.

Rematch Adjustments
In last week's win in Newark, the Bisons made 15 3-point baskets on offense and held the Highlanders to 38 percent shooting overall, NJIT's worst shooting game since before Christmas.

Monday's rematch was a different story. After firing in the 15 threes in Newark, Lipscomb shot just 7-for-23 from downtown in Nashville. And even that was misleading, since the Bisons made only one 3-pointer in the opening half and most of their 6 second-half 3-pointers came after NJIT had built a comfortable lead.

After shooting just 38 percent in the first meeting, the Highlanders shot 48 percent overall and 55 percent (16 of 29) from downtown, coupled with a solid 14-for-20 at the foul line.

Trying to limit Lipscomb on the perimeter was not without cost to NJIT, which allowed more space inside. Feeding its big men, Lipscomb made 22 of its 33 shot attempts from inside the 3-point arc, with  David Wishon, a 7-foot-2, 285-pound graduate student, and George Brammeier, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound sophomore, doing damage.

Wishon, who played two seasons at Tulsa and one at College of Charleston before joining Lipscomb for his final season of eligibility, came off the Bisons bench and played 20 minutes, making 9 of 11 shots from the field, all from in close, and leading the team with 24 points. Wishon's previous scoring high this season was 9 points and he scored 2 points in Lipscomb's win at NJIT last week.

Brammeier made all five of his shot attempts and finished with 12 points, four shy of his season high. He scored one point in his first game against the Highlanders last week.

Lipscomb's most effective perimeter player Monday night was junior guard JC Hampton, who came in as his team's top scorer for the season, averaging 16.3 points per game. He scored 19 points in defeat Monday vs. NJIT.

Nathan Moran, the 5-foot-9 sophomore guard for the Bisons, added 11 points and a team-best 7 assists.

Aside from the four double-figure scorers, the remaining eight Lipscomb players who appeared combined to score just 12 points.

Shakeup in the standings
In addition to taking care of business by beating the team in front of them Monday night, the Highlanders got good news from around the conference when Stetson won at North Florida, 86-82, and Jacksonville toppled Florida Gulf Coast, 83-80.

NJIT's win put the Highlanders at 4-4, which ties them with FGCU for third place with six games left. Jacksonville, which lost to NJIT earlier, is a surprising 6-2, and North Florida, the defending A-Sun champion, is 7-1.

Monday's loss by the Ospreys against Stetson snapped an 18-game home winning streak for UNF and an 8-game winning streak overall. FGCU, which won 13 of its first 20 games, including a 4-0 start in the A-Sun, has now lost 4 in a row.

NJIT vs. Lipscomb narrative
NJIT, which was handicapped by sputtering starts in most of its defeats from mid-December through late January, got out of the gate quickly at Lipscomb, building a 28-13 lead just past the midpoint of the opening half, when Ukawuba drained a 3-pointer with 9:11 left.

Two big elements in Monday's success for NJIT were its 3-point shooting (10-for-18 in the first half) and Lipscomb turnovers, as the Bisons committed 15 turnovers in the first 20 minutes on the way to a season-worst 23 turnovers in the game. The Highlanders would outscore Lipscomb in points off turnovers, 26-16, in the game and 19-9 in the first half.

After the Ukawuba three opened the NJIT lead to 28-13, Lipscomb rallied and closed the gap to 30-24 with an 11-2 spurt in less than five minutes, capped by Hampton's fast-break layup with 4:29 left in the half.

However, a Lynn jump shot and a Coleman 3-pointer in a span of 8 seconds pushed the NJIT advantage to 35-24 and the Highlanders took a 45-35 lead into the locker room at halftime,

With the memories of Lipscomb's 15 3-pointers in Newark last week still fresh in both teams' minds, the Highlanders knew a strong second half was needed in order to secure another road win.

Hampton made a 3-point basket on the first Bison possession, trimming the deficit to 45-38, but NJIT responded and and took command quickly, scoring 16 of the game's next 19 points to take what would be the biggest lead of the night, 61-41, following Howard's layup with 14:58 on the clock.

The NJIT lead was at least 13 points from then until Moran's 3-pointer made the score 81-69 with 3:41 left. The Bisons made two more triples in the ensuing minutes, but NJIT kept them at bay by scoring nine points of its own in the same time frame.

Chance to make a stand on the homestand
With a chance to strengthen its position in the Atlantic Sun standings, NJIT will play its next three games at home in the Fleisher Athletic Center.

In a typical season, that would be great news. Last season, the Highlanders were an impressive 15-2 at home on Fleisher Family Court and they won their first four home games in the pre-conference portion of this season's schedule.

But things have not gone as hoped in the first four A-Sun home games. NJIT lost its first-ever conference home game to USC Upstate, 80-78, on a basket with less than a second remaining. Then the Highlanders scored a solid 83-63 win over Jacksonville, the team that has gone on to stand in second place at 6-2. After that, however, NJIT lost back-to-back conference home games to North Florida and Lipscomb.

The Highlanders will aim to set things right when they host Kennesaw State on Saturday at 4 pm in Fleisher Athletic Center. In the first meeting in Georgia over this past weekend, the Highlanders topped the Owls, 75-67.