New Jersey City University Athletics

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NEW YORK, NY (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The second meeting of the season between New Jersey City University and New York University in men's basketball led to the second upset by the Gothic Knights over the Violets this season and propelled NJCU further into the post-season. NJCU overcame a dismal 28.1 percent first half of shooting with an explosive second half, shooting a scintillating 69.2 percent in the final 20 minutes as the sixth-seeded Gothic Knights upset #3 seeded NYU, 74-66, in the 2013 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Metro Tournament Quarterfinals on February 27 at the Cole Sports Center.
 
On a night where three of the four road teams in the tournament bracket advanced, NJCU (15-12) wins for the eighth time in nine games and the 11^th time in 14 outings by shooting 6-for-6 from three-point range in the second half to overcome a lackluster 2-for-9 from three-point distance in the opening 20 minutes. That second half proficiency helped NJCU convert 18-of-26 field goals in the second half after making just 9-of-32 in the first period. NJCU finished at 53.3 percent from three-point distance (8-of-15) in the win.
 
NJCU, making its 30^th post-season appearance in 31 years, was facing NYU (15-11) for the second time in a season for the first time in history and led the Violets by as many as 15 points in the second half after trailing by eight in the opening half. Six of the seven meetings in history between the schools have come in the post-season.
 
The Gothic Knights advance to face second-seeded SUNY-Old Westbury, 88-72 road winners over #7 Baruch College in another quarterfinal game, in the ECAC Semifinals on Saturday, March 2 at 3 p.m. The semifinal and finals (March 3) will be hosted by top-seeded Richard Stockton College in Galloway, NJ. Stockton will face John Jay College in the other semifinal at 1 p.m.
 
It will be the first meeting since a 70-52 win over the Panthers on March 5, 2003 in the ECAC Quarterfinals and the Knights are 4-0 all-time against OW, which is now 23-4 after its win on Wednesday, tying that school's single-season record for wins (23-5, 1985-86).
 
NJCU, winners of a record six ECAC championships, is making its 19^th appearance in the ECAC Tournament, and improved to 27-12 (.692) all-time in the tournament. NJCU snapped a streak of four consecutive ECAC Quarterfinal defeats with the win and a streak of five straight post-season losses, including the 2011 NCAA Tournament, while giving sixth-year head coach Marc Brown his first playoff win outside of the conference tournament.
 
Brown, the 2012-13 New Jersey Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, was proud of his team's execution of the game plan. “I thought we wore them down and that was the objective. They played basically seven players and their starters had a bulk of their minutes. We played full court pressure on them the whole game to the very end. That was the objective, to really press them and force turnovers and wear them down and we did a good job of it.”
 
NJCU, known for its nationally No. 10 ranked scoring defense—still the best in school history at 58.1 points per game—got hot   n the second half and Brown noted “we had an unbelievable performance in the second half. Obviously, that's not a normal day for us but we'll take it. KHALID MUHAMMAD got hot, we ran out stuff, and we executed well on offense. But the biggest key was defense, although we did get hot in the second half.”
 
Four Gothic Knights scored in double figures, led by freshman guard/forward KHALID MUHAMMAD (Orange, NJ/Orange), the 2013 NJAC Rookie of the Year, who scored at least 20 points for the sixth time this season and NJCU improved to 5-1 when he does. Muhammad was one point shy of matching his career high, finishing with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including an incredible 5-for-6 from three-point distance, with two assists and two steals in 29 minutes. Muhammad scored 18 points in the second half when he was 7-for-8 from the field and 4-of-4 from long range.
 
Senior small forward JOSH CAVER (Trenton, NJ/Pennsbury (Fairless Hills, PA) was one point shy of a career high, finishing with 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting while adding five rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes. He scored 11 in the second half on 5-of-8 shooting. Junior guard ASMAR EDWARDS (Paterson, NJ/John F. Kennedy) collected a career-best 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting (5-8 FT), with seven rebounds, four assists and three steals in 32 minutes.
 
Sophomore forward DREW MARLEY (Maplewood, NJ/Columbia) came off the bench to score 10 points in 16 minutes on 3-of-7 shooting and sophomore guard DAKWAN SIMMONS (Newark, NJ/University) had six points (2-4 3FG) and five assists in 18 reserve minutes. Freshman point guard BRENT BURGESS, JR. (Roselle, NJ/Dickinson) made his first career start on a huge stage count, finishing with five points, three steals, three rebounds and two assists.
 
NYU, which shot 44.4 percent in each half (8-18 in first half; 12-27 in second half), received a team-high 18 points from 6-foot-8 senior forward Carl Yaffe (Bethesda, MD), who shot 5-for-11 (2-3 FG) and 6-of-8 from the line with five rebounds, four assists and two blocks in 38 minutes in his final career game. Senior center Devin Karch (Bayville, NY) concluded his career with 13 points (4-8 FG, 5-6 FT) and four rebounds in 22 minutes.
 
Also for the Violets, sophomore guard Iyoha Agho (New City, NY) scored 10 points, knocking down 3-of-4 from three-point range, in 13 reserve minutes. Senior forward Max Wein (Purchase, NY) had eight defensive rebounds and seven points (2-4 FG; 2-3 3FG).
 
In a first half where NJCU was playing its first game in 11 days since losing at Richard Stockton in the NJAC Quarterfinals, the Knights jumped out to early leads of 11-6 and 15-9 with 13:06 to go in the opening period. NYU responded by scoring the next nine points as Karch capped the run with a pair of foul shots to give NYU an 18-15 lead with 9:04 on the board.
 
NYU extended that streak to 14-1 and held the Knights without a field goal for a span of exactly 10 minutes—from the 13:44 to 3:44. Wein's second three during the streak made it 21-16 before Yaffe scored with 5:05 left to give NYU a 23-16 advantage. A jumper by Marley and Edwards steal and fast-break made it a three-point game to snap the run but the Violets hit five free throws to gain a 28-20 lead—its largest of the night—the last shots with 1:36 to play in the half. Simmons hit a three with a minute to go to make it a 28-23 deficit at the intermission and NJCU, which committed just 10 turnovers on the day, stayed in the game by limiting itself to five turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

But NJCU came out in the second half as a team on a mission and used a 16-4 run to go from five points down to seven ahead in the first 5:27 of the period. Baskets by Caver and Muhammad started it, Burgess hit a three and Marley tied it with a layup on a second chance possession with 15:53 to go. Muhammad put NJCU on top for good when he drilled a three with 15:07 to go and after a technical foul, Marley sank two from the line. Caver scored inside with 14:33 to go for a 39-32 differential.
 
Muhammad buried a triple for a 42-33 cushion, sank a jumper for a 44-33 edge, and scored NJCU's eighth straight point when he buried a three with 12:43 to go for an 11-point, 47-36 advantage.
 
“He's been doing it for us all year offensively and [it's good] any time you can have a true freshman come in and carry us offensively,” Brown praised Muhammad. “It was kind of unfair to ask him to do that [this year] but he stepped up to the challenge and he continues to play well.”
 
“We have to give a lot of credit to Asmar [Edwards],” Brown continued. “Not only did he have a good offensive game, he took their point guard out of the game offensively. He played with a lot of energy, heart and pride and the guys kind of followed his lead.”
 
After Muhammad's three, NYU could not draw closer than seven points until the final minutes. Two free throws by Edwards pushed the lead back to 10 with 8:45 to go (52-42), Caver sank a jumper and Edwards turned another steal into two fast break points for a 56-44 cushion before a layup by sophomore forward KHALID CRAWFORD-MUHAMMAD (Plainfield, NJ/Plainfield) extended the lead to 14 (58-44) with 7:22 to go. NJCU held its largest lead of the game at 15, 67-52, on a pair of Marley foul shots with 4:02 to go.
 
NYU tried to make a late rally, scoring nine straight points in a span of 1:52 to cut the deficit to six, 67-61, when Agho hit a three and sank a foul shot for a four-point play. He hit an earlier three and accounted for seven of NYU's nine during the push. But any chance of a comeback was squashed with 1:50 to go when Simmons buried a three and Caver hit a shot with 1:06 to go to push the lead back to double digits (72-61) before NJCU prevailed by eight.
 
“He's just a guy who obviously wants to go out on top,” said Brown about Caver, who is 8-1 as a starter for NJCU this season. “He's playing the best basketball since I've known him and I'm happy for him. Early this year he didn't look healthy but he's really finishing up his college career strong.”
 
Brown, looking ahead to Old Westbury, noted: “they have a great overall record but we don't know much about them. We have two days to find out. I looked at their stats; they have a guy averaging 20, another at 18 and a third scoring 14 and they're scoring 86 points a game. They're probably a fast break team. We've been trying to get them on the schedule since I've been here and we're looking forward to finally facing them.”

GAME NOTES:

NJCU leads the all-time series, 5-2 and is 3-1 all-time against the Violets in the ECAC Tournament. NJCU is 4-2 in post-season games against the Violets. NJCU also defeated NYU on December 3 in New York, 60-50. NYU was ranked #21 nationally in that game and had its 24-game non-conference home court winning streak snapped. NJCU is 3-0 vs. NYU in athletics this season (2-0 men's basketball; 1-0 in men's soccer). NJCU is making its 37th post-season appearance as an NCAA Division III program, including 18 NCAA Tournament appearances (18-21, .447, 38 games). NJCU is a combined 44-33 (.571) in 77 post-season games in its history. ASMAR EDWARDS' previous career high was 12 points vs. The College of New Jersey (January 12, 2013). He tied his assists high mark for the third time and equaled his rebounding high for a third time.