New Jersey City University Athletics

Box Score BOX SCORE
GAME PROGRAM/NOTES

JERSEY CITY, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University trailed by three with 1:46 to play before junior guard/forward WALIK ALBRIGHT (Jersey City, NJ/Create Charter)  tied the game with a driving layup for a three-point play and put the Gothic Knights in front with 34 seconds left before senior point guard KEITH WILLIAMS (Jersey City, NJ/Create Charter) clinched the game with four made free throws as NJCU rallied for a 63-60 non-conference  win over Nazareth College on Saturday night on “Coach Charlie Brown Court” at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center.
 
NJCU, which trailed by as many as nine points midway through the second half, comes from behind to improve to 9-1. The Knights are 9-1 after 10 games for only the sixth time in the 79-year history of the program and only the second time in a season following a New Jersey Athletic Conference championship (also in 1979-80).
 
Nazareth, itself with an impressive resume this season, including two wins over nationally-ranked University of Rochester, drops to 5-4. It was the first-ever meeting between NJCU and the Golden Flyers; the Knights are now 6-5 all-time against the current members of the Empire 8 Conference.
 
Meanwhile, NJCU improved to 5-0 at home this season and ran its home court streak to 19 wins in its last 21 home games since 2009-10. NJCU also won for the 21^st time in its last 24 games since going on a tear at the end of the 2010-11 season.
 
Junior swingman KAIHRIQUE IRICK (Teaneck, NJ/Teaneck) carried the Knights during several spurts of the contest and finished with a career-best 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including a pair of three-pointers (2-for-3) and five rebounds in 38 minutes. He exceeded 20 points for the fourth time this year.
 
Williams finished with 13 points (3-6 FG), six rebounds and three assists, but most contributed from the foul line where he was perfect in six tries. Albright missed his first seven shots of the game before turning it on late, and finished with 13 points (4-13 FG, 5-6 FT) and five caroms.
 
Senior forward TAQUAN ABDULLAH (Kenilworth, NJ/David Brearley) netted seven points but the remainder of the club mustered six points as NJCU shot 37.7 percent from the field (20-53). The Knights capitalized on their free throws, converting 19-of-24 (79.2 percent); the Flyers made 14-of-21 from the stripe.
 
Naz senior guard Jason Corletta (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Sutherland) paced the visitors with 17 points, making 6-of-12 from the floor and 4-of-7 from three-point distance in 36 minutes, to increase his career scoring total to 1,031. Junior guard Tyshun Stephens (Newark, NJ/Newark) shot 2-of-10 from the field but sank eight free throws (8-11) and finished with 13 points and five assists in 37 minutes.
 
Nazareth also received 10 points (3-8 FG) and seven rebounds from sophomore forward Brad Ford (Victor, NY/Victor) while senior forward Jake Fladd (Angola, NY/Frontier) provided nine points (4-4 FG) and seven rebounds 13 reserve minutes before fouling out.
 
“This is a really big win for us over a really good, well-coached team,” noted fifth-year head coach MARC BROWN. “This team reminded me of Ithaca [also a member of the Empire 8 conference], the team we lost to in the tournament [at Juniata, December 9]. I was real satisfied with the win. We're resilient; we didn't shoot well but when we had to make shots, we made shots.”
 
Irick added: “This was a playoff-type game. We trailed most of the game and pulled it out in the last minute. We just kept working and made plays.”
 
In a first half there were four ties and three lead changes as Irick scored nine of NJCU's first 11 points and netted 13 points in 18 minutes (5-8 shooting). NJCU fell behind 17-13 when Irick was called for a defensive goaltend, blocking a shot in the cylinder by 6-foot-11 center Greg Lothridge (East Syracuse, NY/East Syracuse-Minoa).
 
NJCU would regain a 19-17 lead after a three by Irick before Stephens and Corletta answered with two triples in 36 seconds and a Fladd layup increased the Naz margin to six, 25-19 with 4:02 left in the period. NJCU was able to keep the Flyers scoreless in the final four minutes and tied the game when Albright and senior center MATT WASHINGTON (Hackensack, NJ/Paterson Catholic) each sank a pair of foul shots before the clubs went to the intermission even at 25-25.
 
Naz led for most of the second half, scoring the first seven points out of the break, and moved in front 32-25 on a Corletta three.  NJCU twice hit a three to keep it a four-point game as Albright and Irick each connected from deep. But Naz would extend the lead to eight, 39-31 on two baskets by Fladd and pushed the advantage to nine, 41-32, when Fladd scored his sixth consecutive point for the visitors with 9:58 to play.
 
A three-point play by Irick with 8:26 left, a layup by Albright and a trey by Williams made it a two-point game, 44-42 with 7:27 remaining. Naz fought back as Stephens made three free throws after being fouled beyond the arc and Ford again gave the visitors a seven-point lead, 51-44, with two foul shots with 5:20 on the board.
 
But from there, NJCU began to mount its game-winning surge. Albright, who scored seven points in the final five minutes, made a pair from the line (4:53) before Abdullah grabbed a defensive rebound on a Naz miss and sent a long pass upcourt to Irick who unleashed a monster dunk over a defender to cut the deficit to three, 51-48 with 4:38 left. Irick sank a jumper with 4:16 to play to trim the score to 51-50.
 
Corletta hit a tough jumper before Abdullah converted two from the line at the 3:40 mark and when Williams nailed a running jumper with 2:48 left, NJCU had its first lead since the 7:42 mark of the first half. A poorly-timed foul right after the basket gave Naz two free shots and Stephens made both (2:43) before Ford putback an offensive rebound for two points and a 57-54 cushion with 1:46 to play.
 
But after a timeout, Albright began to take over, scoring aggressively inside before finishing a three-point play that tied the game at 57with 1:25 to go. On the ensuing possession, Naz was forced to hurry with the shot clock expiring and Albright drew a key offensive foul on Stephens that gave the Knights the ball with 51.5 on the board.
 
Albright put NJCU back in front for good when he scored down low with 34 seconds left and after a missed Nazareth three-pointer, Williams grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and sank two from the line with 25.2 seconds left for a 61-57 edge. Corletta knocked down his fourth three-pointer from in front of his own bench which made it a one-point game with 15.4 on the clock. The Flyers needed to foul, but Williams calmly drained two with 13.5 to play for a 63-60 lead. Naz had a chance to tie but couldn't get a clean look at the basket from the perimeter and after mishandling a pass, Ford's attempt to tie rimmed out at the buzzer.
 
“I told the guys just not to give up,” said Brown. “We called a few sets and WALIK ALBRIGHT came through for us at the end. They fought to the end and that's what we were asking them to do. The key was the execution at the end. We executed the plays that we called in the timeout and that was key. And at the end of the game, WALIK ALBRIGHT saved us.”
 
“In the first half I didn't play too well,” admitted Albright, “but coach told me to just stick with it and it [the points] would come. He called my name and I came through. I just knew I had to leave it all on the court for my team.”
 
NJCU and Nazareth will both be inactive over the holiday break before returning to action on Wednesday, January 4, 2012. NJCU will visit Ramapo College in a New Jersey Athletic Conference game in Mahwah, NJ at 7:30 p.m. while the Flyers head to SUNY Cortland that evening at 7 p.m.
 
Brown summed up the result by saying “this was a very important win going into the break, now 9-1, with another win against a real quality team. That counts for a lot.”