UNION, N.J. — Trailing by 12 points with three minutes to go, the New Jersey City University men's basketball team turned on the afterburners to the tune of a 12-2 run to make it a two-point game with 13 seconds left on Wednesday night, Feb. 2, in a road New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) clash at Kean University. Unfortunately, the Cougars held tough and sank their final free throws a second later to seal the four-point defeat for the Gothic Knights.
NJCU (10-11, 7-7 NJAC) fell behind in a big way to Kean (12-7, 7-7 NJAC) early on and trailed the Cougars by a 15-point margin at 22-7 with 12:35 to go in the first half. The Gothic Knights then made it a game by scoring the next nine points to bring it to six at 22-16 with 8:27 left until the break, including threes from senior
Denzel Banks (Newark, NJ/East Orange Campus) and junior
Derryen Whyte (Irvington, N.J./Union).
Kean then went up by 12 with 6:30 left and the score at 28-16 in its favor, but Jersey City once again turned it on with a 16-2 run to take a two-point, 32-30 lead with 1:19 remaining in the first. Freshman
Ben Todd (Woodland Hills, Calif./El Camino Real Charter) got it started with a layup, followed by another bucket down low from Whyte. Todd then sank a jumper in the paint before senior
Jason Battle (Jersey City, N.J./Roselle Catholic) took an outlet pass from Whyte off a steal and converted on the transition lay-in. Whyte made it a two-point game with another jumper at 3:45, and after a quick Kean bucket, senior
Kayton Darley (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen) converted on a block from freshman
Corey Manning-Floyd (Jersey City, N.J./Snyder) by grabbing in the defensive board and going coast-to-coast for the layup on the break to again make it a two-point contest. Darley and Whyte combined to score the next four points from the foul line to put NJCU ahead.
Both squads traded the lead back-and-forth for the first portion of the second half and, after a jumper in the paint from freshman
Zaire Jefferson (Newark, N.J./Payne Tech) made it a one-point, 50-49 lead for Kean, the Cougars began to stretch out their advantage to as many as 12 points on several occasions, as late as 74-62 with 3:04 remaining. Battle answered back with a trio of made free throws to cut it to nine with 2:40 left. Manning-Floyd answered a single Kean foul shot with three points (a FT and a layup) to cut it to seven. With less than a minute to go, Darley stole the ball and converted with a fastbreak bucket and then, 00:29 on the clock, made a layup to cut it to 75-72. One Cougar free throw six seconds later was answered by a lay-up from Battle with 00:13 to go in regulation to make it 76-74. Unfortunately, Kean made its final two foul shots and Banks was unable to convert on a three attempt with time winding down and the Cougars sealed it.
Highlights:
- Whyte led NJCU with a team-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting (63.6 percent), including 3-of-6 from long range. He also grabbed five rebounds, dished out two assists and notched one steal before fouling out after a team-high 31 minutes of playing time in the start.
- Darley and Todd each finished in double figures scoring, as well. The former ended with 11 points over 15 minutes, while the latter scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked a shot.
- Banks and Battle each finished with nine points. Manning-Floyd led NJCU with a team-best six boards to gp with six points and a block before fouling out late, as well.
Up Next:
The Gothic Knights return to action on the road this Saturday afternoon, Feb. 5, for a 3:00 p.m. tip against Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J. They are in search of their second straight win over the Roadrunners, but first in Mahwah since November 23, 2013.
