Game Highlights (Video)
NEW YORK—It's likely that NJIT met some of the goals it had going into Saturday night's men's basketball game at Columbia, particularly on defense. But at the end of the night, too many things went wrong for the Highlanders and they fell to the Lions, 65-56.
Columbia, now 7-5 overall built a 13-point lead by halftime and eventually went up 55-35 with 11:19 left, before staving off a late comeback and topping the visiting Highlanders by nine points. The win for the Lions was their third in a row and they have taken four of their last five.
NJIT, which tipped off less than 48 hours after finishing a fast-paced 92-86 overtime victory at St. Francis Brooklyn Thursday night, falls to 6-5 with Saturday's non-league defeat at Columbia.
The 92 points in the win at St. Francis were a season-high for the Highlanders, who have scored 89 or more in four games. Their 56 points at Columbia two nights later were a season-low, however, one less than the 57 they scored in the season-opening game at then-#2 Kentucky.
Contributing to Saturday's season-low point total, NJIT had its second-least accurate shooting game, connecting on 34.4 percent (22-64) from the field, including a season-worst 20 percent rate from 3-point distance (5-for-25).
Perhaps most glaring in the difficult shooting night was a 7-for-16 (43.8 percent) at the foul line for a Highlander team that came in ranked fourth in the nation as a team after making better than 80 percent of its free throws through 10 games. NJIT's previous worst foul shooting night was 73.7 percent (14-for-19) in the season's first win at South Florida.
The Highlanders were outscored 19-7 on foul shots by Columbia in a game NJIT lost by 9 points overall. The winning Lions shot 19-for-24 (79.2 percent) at the line.
On the defensive end, NJIT held normally high-scoring Columbia more than 14 points below its 79.1 points per game average coming in. The 65 points against the Highlanders were the lowest total for Columbia this season and the 38.8 percent shooting (19-49) from the floor was the second-lowest of the season for the Lions.
Columbia, which came in with four players averaging double-figure scoring, had just one on Saturday night as senior Maodo Lo, a unanimous All-Ivy League honoree as a junior, finished with 20 points, 13 of which came in the second half.
However, three Lions came within a point of double-figures, as seniors Alex Rosenberg, Grant Mullins and junior Luke Petrasek all netted 9 points. Freshman Lukas Meisner, like Lo, a native of Germany, added 8 points for the winners.
NJIT got a game-high 23 points from senior point guard
Ky Howard, who matched his career scoring high for a second-consecutive game and shot 9-for-15 from the field. He also reached a season-high 7 assists for the third time in his last 7 games.
Junior
Terrence Smith, who missed all of last season due to injury, had his second-bestt scoring game this season, putting up 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting against Columbia.
Damon Lynn added 11 points, all of them coming in the second half.
Columbia had the advantage in total rebounds, 44-36, but the game's top individual rebounder was NJIT's
Tim Coleman, who pulled down 10.
The winning team got 9 rebounds each from Rosenberg, Petrasek, and sophomore guard Kyle Castlin. Lo, the 6-foot-3 senior, pulled down 7 rebounds.
In the frustration-filled first half, NJIT made just 11-of-35 shots, including 2-for-13 on 3-point attempts, the majority of which were fairly open looks that would not fall through the net. On top of that, the Highlanders only got to attempt two foul shots in the opening half, as Columbia was whistled for only five fouls.
Columbia wasn't especially hot shooting the ball from the field in the first half, going 11-for-25 overall and 5-for-15 on threes. However, the Lions made 11-of-13 free throws and they had eight different individual scorers, led by 7 points each for the seniors Lo and Mullins.
NJIT scored first on a bucket by Smith and the Highlanders took what would be their biggest lead at 7-3 when Howard drained a 3-pointer 3:04 into the contest.
Trailing 10-8 after Highlander
Chris Jenkins made a 3-pointer, Columbia went on a 7-0 run in a span of 56 seconds to claim a 15-10 lead after CJ Davis scored his only points of the night for the home team on a 3-pointer with 12:41 left in the first half.
NJIT, which had fallen behind by two a possession earlier on Lion Jeff Coby's only basket of the night, trailed for the rest of the game.
Columbia built its first double-digit lead with 4:36 to play in the half when Lo hit two foul shots for a 31-21 lead.
With NJIT stuck at 21 from the 5:43 mark to the 1:55 mark, the home team expanded its lead to as many as 14 and was on top at the break, 38-25.
Columbia continued stretching its lead early in the second half and went ahead 47-29 after two more foul shots by Lo with 15:46 left.
The Highlanders made a mini-run when Lynn sandwiched a pair of 3-point baskets around a Columbia layup, closing the gap to 49-35 with 12:36 on the clock. But the visitors' momentum stalled on a 6-0 response by the Lions, capped by two free throws for Meisner that made the score 55-35.
The teams traded scores and Columbia reclaimed its biggest lead, 58-38, after 6-foot-10 Petrasek hit from 3-point territory with 9:27 on the clock.
However, NJIT which tightened its defense and showed some offensive rhythm for the first time in the game a few minutes earlier, answered the Petrasek three with a 10-0 run in a space of less than two minutes, trimming the 20-point Columbia lead to a more manageable 58-48 after a Howard foul shot with 6:53 to play.
Columbia's Lo connected on a 3-point shot 11 seconds after Howard had gotten the visitors within 10 and it would be more than three minutes later that another Howard bucket for NJIT cut the Columbia lead to single-digits, 62-53 with 3:36 left.
The teams played even the rest of the way, 3-3, and Columbia ended with the 65-56 victory.
Having played 11 games, mostly vs. strong opponents, in the season's first 29 days, the Highlanders will take off for more than a week before returning in a noon game at St. John's on Sunday, December 20.
After that, NJIT will be off another eight days before hosting Stony Brook on December 28.
