JERSEY CITY, NJ…New Jersey City University received a game-high 22 points from senior guard and All-America candidate SAMAR BATTLE (East Orange, NJ/Clifford Scott), the 2004 NJAC Player of the Year, as the Gothic Knights led nearly the entire evening before defeating Rowan University, 88-75, to win the 2004 New Jersey Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship and earn an automatic bid to the 2004 NCAA Division III Tournament. The NJAC crown is a record 11th for NJCU, which was deadlocked with Rowan at 10 titles each entering the game.
NJCU, which had four players in double figures, has won four straight games to improve to 21-6. The NJAC championship for the Gothic Knights is their first in any sport since 1994-95, the last year that the men’s basketball team won the crown. NJCU advances to the NCAA Tournament for the 16th time since 1973, and the first time since the 1998-99 campaign. The NCAA Tournament bracket will be unveiled Sunday night at 10 pm, with first and second round games being held Thursday and Saturday.
Rowan (21-6) will wait to see if they receive an at-large bid to the NCAA’s. NJCU swept both of its meetings with Rowan this season. This was the eighth meeting between the schools in the NJAC Tournament, but the first ever in the finals. Rowan is 5-3 against the Knights in the league tournament.
Battle, the conference Player of the Year, scored 20 or more points in a game for the 15th time this season, and for a third straight game. NJCU is 14-1 when he does this season, and his team is 26-3 all-time when he reaches the threshold. He scored 22 on 7-of-12 shooting and 4-of-6 from three-point range, grabbed six rebounds (five defensive) and rejected a season-high five blocks in 38 minutes.
The Knights also received a career-high 21 points from sophomore point guard KAREEM COLLINS (Hillside, NJ/Hillside), who shot 6-of-10 from the floor and 8-of-13 from the line. He added four assists and three steals in 28 minutes off the bench. Sophomore forward and Second-Team All-NJAC selection MARK WASHINGTON (East Orange, NJ/West Side) tallied 17 points (7-of-11), six rebounds, and four steals in only 24 minutes. Senior point guard MIKE BARRY (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne), who began the year as NJCU’s third-string point guard, and was making only the fifth start of his career, again came up big. He recorded 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, and had three assists. And after not having a block in the first 77 games of his career and achieving his first in the NJAC Semifinals on Thursday, Barry, a 5-11 guard, stuffed two shots tonight as NJCU tallied nine blocks as a team.
Rowan also had four players reach double figures, led by senior guard Earle Agee (Red Bank, NJ/Red Bank Regional), who matched Battle by scoring a game-high 22 points on 8-of-21 shooting and 6-of-11 from three-point range. He had 13 at the half. Senior guard Tylee Thomas (Wildwood, NJ/Wildwood) added 17 points (6-of-15), a game-high nine rebounds (eight defensive), and four steals in 35 minutes before fouling out.
Also contributing for the Profs was junior center Brandon King (Sicklerville, NJ/Washington Township) who had 14 points (7-of-9 FG) and five rebounds, and junior guard Ryan Cochrane (Howell, NJ/Pemberton) finished with 11 points (4-of-9 FG), a game-best nine assists, and six rebounds, while giving away five turnovers.
NJCU shot lights out from the field in the second half, knocking down 76 percent of its shots (19-of-25) to break open a one-point, 33-32 home margin at the half. The Knights finished shooting 57.4 percent for the game (31-of-54), and 60.0 percent (9-of-15) from three-point range. Rowan made 42.3 percent of its shots (30-of-71). The Profs also out-rebounded the Knights, 39-30, but a majority of those were on the offensive glass (16-5, Rowan), where NJCU didn’t need second chances due to a great first-chance shooting effort. Rowan had a 21-1 margin on second chance points. Both teams committed 22 turnovers, and NJCU translated that into a 27-17 edge in points off miscues. Rowan doubled NJCU’s paint output (44-22).
In the first half, NJCU opened up a 17-9 lead before a 10-2 Profs streak tied the game at 19-19. A King tip-in at 4:20 gave Rowan its largest lead of the game, 28-22, and Thomas converted a lay-up to keep the score at 30-24. However, NJCU uncorked a 9-2 run to finish the half, and led 33-32 at the break. Battle, who scored his first point of the evening on a fast-break dunk with 3:08 led in the opening half, later drained back-to-back treys, and tied the game at 30-30 with 58 seconds on the board. With 4.8 seconds left in the period, Collins made a nifty spin move to the basket and was fouled, and NJCU’s sixth-man converted the three-point play to give NJCU the lead for good.
In the second half, NJCU’s lead fluctuated between one and eight points, and the Knights lead stood at 62-58 with 7:20 left. One more time, a Gothic Knight run made the difference in the game, as the NJAC Champions unleashed an 11-0 scoring torrent to pull away. NJCU went ahead 68-58 at 5:43 on a fall away jumper by Battle, followed by another jumper by the senior for a 70-58 edge. Washington, who hit a turnaround jumper at 6:06 that made it an eight-point lead, capped the run with a steal and fast-break lay-up at 3:54 that swelled the margin to 73-58. Rowan tried to exploit NJCU’s known weakness—its free throw shooting. But the strategy did not work, as the Knights sank 11-of-16 at the line in the final 2:27 of play.
