Game Highlights w/ PBP (Video)

Postgame Comments from Engles, Howard, Tselentakis (Video)


NEWARK, NJ—Propelled by what may have been its best defensive half of the season, NJIT won its season-best fifth consecutive game, topping Florida Gulf Coast 68-59 late Saturday afternoon in Atlantic Sun Conference men's basketball played in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
With the victory over visiting FGCU and losses elsewhere by A-Sun co-leaders North Florida and Jacksonville, the surging Highlanders have forged a three-way tie at the top of the conference standings with a 7-4 A-Sun record, identical to North Florida, the defending A-Sun champion, and Jacksonville.
 
NJIT's overall record is 16-11, while Florida Gulf Coast, which came in tied with the Highlanders, drops to 15-12 overall and 6-5 in the A-Sun.

The only two teams to previously hold Florida Gulf Coast under 60 points were: Florida (beat FGCU 70-50 on November 27) and South Dakota State (beat FGCU 56-52 on December 19).
 
Ky Howard, playing his final regular season home game on Senior Day in the Fleisher Athletic Center, came up big, with a game-high 21 points and an NJIT-best 10 rebounds, all on the defensive end. It was his third double-double of the season and sixth of his career. He was two points shy of his personal-best 23 points, which he has reached twice this season.
 
The victorious Highlanders also got 16 points apiece from Tim Coleman and Damon Lynn and Coleman came down with 8 rebounds and blocked two shots.
 
Another Senior Day honoree, Emmanuel Tselentakis, made both of his shots, which came from downtown, and grabbed 6 rebounds.
 
The team's third senior, Winfield Willis, a starter before sustaining a torn achilles tendon on December 7 vs. Kent State, was honored, as well.
 
FGCU had just one double-figure scorer, redshirt junior Marc-Eddy Norelia, who finished with 17 points. The big man also pulled a game-best 11 rebounds, giving him his 10th double-double of the season.
 
NJIT, which last lost on January 27, can shape its own destiny, as its next two games are in Jacksonville, FL, with a showdown at North Florida on Thursday and another one across town at Jacksonville on Saturday.
 
To reach this point, the Highlanders needed to defeat Florida Gulf Coast, one of the elite teams in the Atlantic Sun Conference in recent years. FGCU, less than three years removed from its "Dunk City" run to the Sweet 16 of the 2013 NCAA Tournament, was picked second (one spot ahead of newcomer NJIT) in the A-Sun coaches' poll before the start of this season.
 
In the first meeting between NJIT and FGCU on January 14 in Fort Myers, the Eagles built a 21-point lead late in the first half and never trailed in regulation. But NJIT rallied to force overtime and took the lead in the extra session, only to fall, 82-78.
 
With that loss, NJIT began its inaugural A-Sun season 0-2, but the Highlanders have gone 7-2 in the conference since.
 
Saturday's rematch did not have any of the big one-sided runs that characterized the first meeting, but the visiting Eagles were on top for 18:19 of the 20-minute first half.
 
FGCU opened a 7-2 lead early, but NJIT came back to tie the score after Lynn's layup with 16:08 left in the first.
 
FGCU's fine freshman guard, Reggie Reid, the primary defender charged with trying to contain Lynn, NJIT's top scorer, flashed some offense, making two 3-point baskets in 28 seconds to give the visitors a 13-7 lead with 13:58 left.
 
Neither team could make a significant push in the ensuing minutes, but when Rayjon Tucker connected on a jump shot, FGCU had what would be its biggest lead of the day, 25-17, with 5:40 remaining in the first half.
 
NJIT used a 6-0 run in a span of 1:25, four of the points coming form Howard, to close the gap to 25-23 with 4:02 left.
 
And when Howard drained a 3-point shot with 50 seconds left in the half, the score was tied at 31, which is where it stood when the buzzer sounded.
 
Game scoring honors at the half were shared by NJIT's Howard and FGCU's Norelia, with 11 points apiece.
 
NJIT had to feel somewhat fortunate to be tied at the break, since FGCU shot 52 percent (13-for-25) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, while committing just 4 turnovers. On the other end, NJIT's field goal percentage against the A-Sun's best team in scoring defense (71.1 ppg coming in) stood at 38 percent (9-for-24) after a half.
 
However, the Highlanders had a big first-half lead at the foul line, where they shot 10-for-14 compared to just 2-for-6 for the visiting Eagles.
 
In another key statistic, NJIT held a 19-11 advantage in rebounds and limited the visitors to just one offensive rebound.
 
That was a major departure from the meeting in Florida, when the Eagles finished with a 50-40 advantage in total rebounds that included 17 offensive rebounds, which led to 15 second-chance points.
 
Then came the lockdown defensive effort in the second half for the Highlanders. While they allowed FGCU to make 52 percent of its first-half shots, the Eagles' accuracy was more than halved in the second half, when they shot just 7-for-29 (24 percent) from the field.
 
Further, NJIT doubled FGCU on points scored in the paint on Saturday, 32-16. In Fort Myers, the Eagles held a 30-22 edge on the Highlanders in points in the paint. For the season, FGCU came in having outscored its A-Sun foes by an average of 13.5 points per game in the paint.
 
In Saturday's decisive second half, the Highlanders registered a commanding 20-4 advantage on points in the paint and a lot of that had to do with their ability to contain Norelia, who shot 2-for-5 from the floor in the second half.
 
NJIT had a strong start to the second half, as Tselentakis opened the scoring with a 3-pointer and the Highlanders took a 40-33 lead at 15:28 after Coleman hit a jump shot.
 
The Eagles battled back and eventually tied the score at 44 apiece after two free throws from Zach Johnson with 12:11 remaining.
 
Coleman answered for the Highlanders with a layup that triggered a 7-0 , capped by Lynn's only three of the day that made the score 51-44 with 10:15 left.
 
Florida Gulf Coast later trimmed the Highlander lead to 54-49 when Christian Terrell hit a 3-pointer from the right corner with 5:41 on the clock.
 
But another 6-0 spurt by NJIT pushed the Highlanders' lead to double-digits, 60-49, after Lynn scored a layup with 3:40 remaining.
 
A brief spell of sloppiness by the Highlanders gave FGCU some hope, but the Eagles never got closer than six and NJIT put the win on ice by making all six of its free throws in the closing 1:08.
 
While the Highlanders have used their five-game winning streak to reach the top of the A-Sun standings, nothing, not even home court in the first round of the conference tournament on March 1, is assured with three games left on the schedule.
 
They are tied with North Florida and Jacksonville for first place with 7-4 conference records. FGCU and Lipscomb, which beat UNF on Saturday in Nashville, are next at 6-5. And Kennesaw, which trounced Jacksonville on Saturday, 90-69, is still in the hunt. KSU is sixth in the eight-team standings, but just two games off the pace, at 5-6 in A-Sun games.