NEW YORK, NY (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The New Jersey City University men's basketball team has struggled to close out games through much of the 2012-13 campaign, but for the second time in three days, the Gothic Knights held off a challenge at the end to prevail. NJCU led by as many as 11 points in the second half before host John Jay College drew within one point on three occasions down the stretch. But NJCU did not allow another point in the final 2:39 of play and held on to win its third consecutive game, defeating the Bloodhounds, 65-62, in a non-conference game on January 14 at The Doghouse.
NJCU improves to 7-9 overall and is a perfect 15-0 all-time in the series with John Jay (9-5)—the current second place team in the City University of New York Athletic Conference.
John Jay made nine three-pointers in the game and shot 40.9 percent from long range (9-22), but only converted 20 total field goals. NJCU outscored JJC in the paint by a 3:1 ratio, 42-14, and turned 16 Bloodhound giveaways into a 16-2 margin on the fast break and 20-7 in points off turnovers. NJCU also had twice as many second chance points (24-12), thanks to 19 offensive rebounds.
NJCU only committed four turnovers in the first half while staking itself to a 40-30 margin at the break and its 12 overall turnovers in the game were tied for the second fewest this year.
Four-time New Jersey Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week KHALID MUHAMMAD (Orange, NJ/Orange) reached double figures for the 12th time this season, and led the Knights in scoring for the 11th time as he shot 6-of-10 from the field and chalked up 16 points (four rebounds, two steals) in 28 minutes.
Three Gothic Knights reached double figures. Sophomore point guard DAKWAN SIMMONS(Newark, NJ/University) reached double digits for the sixth straight game and seventh time this season, finishing with 10 points (3-7 FG) in 24 minutes, including two key foul shots in the final seconds to ice the game.
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