New Jersey City University Athletics

Box Score BOX SCORE

HUNTINGDON, PA (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University never trailed and led by as many as 31 as junior swingmen WALIK ALBRIGHT (Jersey City, NJ/Create Charter) and KAIHRIQUE IRICK (Teaneck, NJ/Teaneck) combined for 29 points in a 77-48 rout of Penn State Mont Alto in the consolation game of the 2011 Comfort Inn Doc Green Tournament at Juniata College on Saturday afternoon.
 
NJCU improves to 7-1 overall with the win, facing the Lions (3-7) for the first time in program history. NJCU finished third in the tournament after dropping a five-point game to Ithaca College on December 9. Host Juniata edged Ithaca, 68-65, in the finals.
 
Irick was selected to the All-Tournament Team—his second such selection in a tournament in his first year as a Gothic Knight—after scoring 34 points in two games.
 
NJCU shot 25-of-58 for the game (43.1 percent) and hit eight three-pointers, while Mont Alto was 1-for-9 from beyond  the arc. The Knights collected an assist on 17 of 25 field goals.
 
Albright scored in double figures for the seventh game in a row, notching a game-high 16 points in 20 minutes on 5-of-8 shooting, including a pair of three pointers. Irick netted 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting in 23 minutes.

Fifth-year head coach MARC BROWN said: “if we played the way we played today against Ithaca we could have won the tournament. We didn't defend well enough and had too many inopportune turnovers that lost us that game.”
 
“We came out and played hard today. I was concerned about what the energy would be like today [after the loss] and Penn State [Mont Alto] played Juniata hard yesterday. But we just put it on them today. Not many teams would beat us the way we played today.”
 
Freshman JAQUAN COOK (New Brunswick, NJ/New Brunswick) collected a career-high 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting and 5-for-5 free throw accuracy in 18 reserve minutes. He had 16 points in his seven previous games.
 
Senior center MATT WASHINGTON (Hackensack, NJ/Paterson Catholic) reached double figures in rebounds for the third time this year, grabbing 10 (nine defensive) in 15 minutes. Junior guard MICHAEL MORRIS (Burlington, NJ/Burlington City) added eight points (3-7 FG) and converted 2-of-3 from three-point distance.
 
Junior point guard NAADIR WILLIAMS (Newark, NJ/Weequahic) and senior point guard KEITH WILLIAMS (Jersey City, NJ/Create Charter) each had six points and two three-pointers, while combining for nine assists.
 
Mont Alto did not have a player reach double figures in scoring. Dan Smay led the opposition with nine points.
 
Albright hit two triples in a span of 35 seconds before a jumper by Irick gave the Knights a 10-2 lead. Back-to-back threes by KEITH WILLIAMS in 22 seconds made it 22-6 and the Knights extended the advantage to 29-10 on a trey by NAADIR WILLIAMS with 10:11 left in the first half. Free throws by Washington gave NJCU's its largest first half lead, 21 points, as the Knights went to the break leading 41-20.
 
Mont Alto never got closer than 17 points the remainder of the game. A three by NAADIR WILLIAMS capped a 13-0 spurt as NJCU elevated the lead to 30, 56-26, with 12 minutes to go. NJCU's largest margin was 61-30 with 9:50 remaining before prevailing by 29.
 
NJCU had its best free throw shooting performance of the year at 82.6 percent (19-23), including 11-of-12 in the first half (.917).
 
NJCU will next host Lehman College on Wednesday, December 14 at 7 p.m. in Jersey City, NJ in a makeup game of a December 7 postponement before hosting a strong Nazareth College team on December 17.
 
“We just need to continue playing good defense and stay together,” noted Brown. “Our goal is to go into the holiday 9-1 and that's what we're going to try to do.”