JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | In a back-and-forth second half of a must-win game for the New Jersey City University men's basketball, The College of New Jersey led 58-54 with 2:24 remaining before the Gothic Knights scored the final nine points of the contest, including a key go-ahead offensive rebound and putback by junior shooting guard Khalid Muhammad (Orange, NJ/Orange) with 1:15 to go as NJCU squeaked out a 63-58 New Jersey Athletic Conference win over the Lions on February 7 at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center.
 
NJCU improves to 9-11 overall and evens its NJAC mark at 7-7, winning for the sixth time in seven games. After a disappointing 3-10 start to the season which included a 1-6 ledger in the league, the Knights are writing a comeback script eerily similar to the 2012-13 campaign when a Muhammad-led squad opened the season 4-9 overall and 0-7 in the league, before reeling off 10 wins in 12 games—including 9-2 in the NJAC—to reach the post-season, in the best mid-year conference turn-around in Division III history.
 
More importantly, the win allows NJCU to keep pace in the NJAC with a make-up game with first place and No. 25 William Paterson University looming on February 9. The Knights stay a half-game in front of Ramapo College (7-8 NJAC) after the Roadrunners stunned No. 17 Stockton, 52-46 in an earlier game.
 
TCNJ (12-10, 8-7 NJAC) and Rowan (8-7), both of whom NJCU split with during the regular season, is now just one game ahead of the Knights in the league standings with two weeks remaining prior to the NJAC Tournament.
 
For NJCU it also exacted revenge on the Lions after TCNJ rallied from a 19-0 deficit to outlast the Knights in Ewing, NJ, 61-59, in the first meeting this season between the clubs on January 10.
 TCNJ, which rallied from a five-point deficit in the final minute to stun NJCU in that first meeting, had a healthy four-point lead after sophomore guard Eric Klacik (Basking Ridge, NJ/Ridge) hit a three with 2:24 left. Senior center Eddie Brown (Newark, NJ/Newark East Side) managed to sink two from the line with 2:12 to go to make it a 2-point game and his fifth block of the game—a stuff of senior guard Jayson Johnson (Bordentown, NJ/Life Center Academy) with 1:41 left—forced a jump ball. Senior small forward Neville Joseph (Newark, NJ/West Side), coming off a career-best 29 points in a win over Ramapo on Wednesday, was fouled and buried both shots from the line with 1:26 to play for a 58-58 tie.
 
The Lions were flagged for a 5-second violation on the ensuing inbounds play and when Joseph missed a drive to the rim, Muhammad was there for the go-ahead follow for a 60-58 advantage.
 
Each team had opportunities from the line on the next possessions. NJCU senior point guard Justin Harte (Irvington, NJ/Irvington) and TCNJ's top player, D3hoops.com preseason fourth-time All-America junior forward Bobby Brackett (Lawrenceville, NJ/Lawrence) each missed two foul shots with 55.7 and 33.6 seconds remaining, respectively. Harte rebounded Brackett's second miss, was fouled again, and with 31 ticks left, he again missed both foul shots and Brackett got the rebound. But on an inbounds pass the Lions turned it over again as senior forward Skyelar Ettin's pass was wide of everyone, sailing out of bounds.
 

This time, NJCU would capitalize. Joseph was fouled and made the second free throw of a two-shot penalty for a three-point lead (61-58). Ettin's three-point try from the right corner caromed all the way down the floor where the rebound was tracked down by freshman guard Joseph Kelley (Newark, NJ/University), who iced the game with two free throws with 3.2 seconds to play.

Muhammad narrowed his pursuit of the 1,000-point club to just 26 points as he scored a game-high equaling 14 points (6-11 FG) with six rebounds, three blocks and two assists. Joseph struggled from the field (3-12) but was solid from the line (6-8) and finished with 12 points, six rebounds and two steals.
 
Senior power forward Drew Marley (Maplewood, NJ/Columbia) had 10 points, knocking down 3-of-6 field goal tries and all four foul shots in 18 minutes. Brown finished with seven points and five blocks before fouling out. Senior shooting guard Jamall McDaniel (Jersey City, NJ/Lincoln) was 3-of-5 shooting, including 2-of-3 from long distance, to add eight points.
 
Brackett posted his 12th double-double of the season for the Lions, finishing with 16 rebounds (12 defensive) and 14 points in 38 minutes. He was just 1-of-5 from the floor but camped out at the line, shooting 12-of-20.
 
Ettin finished with 12 points (3-13 FG, 5-6 FT) and six rebounds and freshman Eric Murdock, Jr. (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater) tallied eight points, five rebounds and four steals.
 
NJCU scored the first eight points of the game behind a pair of McDaniel threes and continued to hold eight-point margins of 15-7 and 17-9 midway through the period before the Lions began making a game of it, twice drawing within two, including 19-17 on a pair of Brackett foul shots. A jumper by Marley and a shot by junior shooting guard David Cole (Avenel, NJ/Colonia) helped to work the lead back to eight (25-17) before Brackett's two shots from the line in the final seconds made it a 26-24 contest at the half.
 
While the first half was rather fast-paced with only a combined 16 fouls, the second period was completely different as the officials whistled 37 fouls between the two clubs.
 
That matched the back-and-forth nature of the half. After tying the game, TCNJ went in front for the first time on a three by freshman forward Elias Bermudez (Westwood, NJ/Westwood). Muhammad answered with a three and NJCU worked the lead back to five (39-34, 14:29) before the Lions used a 9-1 run to regain the lead which grew to 46-42 when Klacik hit a three with 10:05 to play. A triple by Murdock, Jr., with his father, former NBA player Eric Murdock in the crowd, made it a five-point lead (49-44) with 9:01 left and the Lions clutched a one-possession lead in a game largely played at the line from that point. With 4:52 left a layup by Joseph drew NJCU within one (52-51) before Muhammad tied it. Three foul shots in four tries by Ettin would give the Lions back the lead before Klacik's three with 2:24 to go.
 
QUOTES:
NJCU head coach Marc Brown (eighth season)

On the game: "Tough game. Great game to watch, tough game to coach. My guys battled to the end and I think that was a key. It wasn't our best game offensively but I thought we executed very well defensively in the second half and that's what won the game for us."
 
On the difference in the two halves: "I thought they were physical and we weren't able to match their physicality until the second half. We battled through [the calls] and I told the guys downstairs [in the locker room] this was a game earlier in the year we definitely would have lost. We showed some toughness and the end of the game and that was key obviously. We need to work on our free throw shooting, and we'll concentrate on that on Monday. It still was a great win for our team."

On how far this team has come and its character: "It shows how we've grown and says a lot about the team. We're a senior-laden team; we have seven seniors and four returning starters and we're playing well at a good time. The key is to not peak at the beginning of the season but peak now and you need tough games like this to win if we're going to get to the playoffs and do anything there."


OF NOTE:

• Series: 134th meeting during the NJAC conference era. Since 1955-56, NJCU leads the series, 72-42. NJCU has won six of the last eight meetings.
• Neville Joseph scored in double figures for the 15th time in 18 games in his only season at NJCU.
• Khalid Muhammad reached double figures in scoring for the 54th time in 76 career games and 12th time this season. He now has 974 career points and is closing in on becoming the 28th member of NJCU's 1000-point club.
• Head coach Marc Brown (111 wins) is four shy of matching Hall-of-Famer Paul Weinstein (115 wins, 1976-82) for fourth place on NJCU's all-time coaching wins list.
• Drew Marley had his 12th career game of 10+ points and his first since scoring 14 against Rowan on December 6.

 
WHAT'S NEXT?
On Monday, February 9 NJCU will make-up a twice snowed-out NJAC home game against No. 25 ranked William Paterson University at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center in Jersey City at 8 p.m. The first-place Pioneers (18-3, 12-2 NJAC) have won 13 of their last 14 games. In the first meeting on December 3 in Wayne, the clubs were tied 34-34 at the half but NJCU shot 22.2 percent in the second half. Meanwhile, the Pioneers shot 52.9 percent in the period, and utilized a 13-0 momentum-seizing run to chalk up a 65-52 decision.
 
Series: 144th known meeting. NJCU leads the all-time series, 76-67.