JERSEY CITY, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | When the New Jersey City University men's basketball team was chosen as the New Jersey Athletic Conference's dark horse selection for the 2012-13 season, no one could have imagined how dark the start to the season would have been. But after opening the year with the worst league record (0-7) in program history, an amazing story of perseverance and will is emerging in Jersey City after the Gothic Knights upset second-place Richard Stockton College on January 30, 60-50, to move into playoff position.
NJCU (10-11, 5-9 NJAC) limited the Ospreys (15-5, 10-4 NJAC) to 14 first-half points and withheld a second half surge that saw Stockton pull within one point before the Knights pulled away in a conference game at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center on "Coach Charlie Brown Court."
NJCU won for the sixth time in eight outings and has been victorious in five of its last seven conference games, after knocking off an Osprey program that had won its last four games and scored 77 points in the first meeting of the season between the schools. The Knights held an opponent to 55 or fewer points for the third consecutive game.
With Kean University (6-15, 5-9 NJAC) losing at Rowan University, 64-55, the Knights now own the sixth and final playoff berth in the league tournament based on tiebreakers with four games remaining in the regular season. Rutgers-Camden (8-13, 5-9 NJAC) also won on Wednesday night as NJCU, Kean and the Scarlet Raptors are all in a dogfight for the sixth seed with identical 5-9 league marks.
Once again, four-time NJAC Rookie of the Week KHALID MUHAMMAD (Orange, NJ/Orange) put the Knights on his back offensively, scoring a game-high 19 points (6-20, 2-5 3FG), including 12 in the second half, and was 5-for-5 from the foul line in the final four minutes, including three consecutive freebies with 3:48 left that provided separation with the Gothic Knight margin only two points. Muhammad reached double figures in the points column for the 17th time this year and led the club in scoring for a 15th time.
Rookie guard RONDRE KELLY (Union, NJ/Malcolm X. Shabazz), in his eighth game as part of the program, netted 14 points—his fifth double-digit scoring effort—making 5-of-10 from the field. Sophomore point guard DAKWAN SIMMONS (Newark, NJ/University) didn't score for only the third time this season but more than made up for it as he delivered a career-high seven assists versus only three turnovers in 33 minutes.
Sophomore forward KHALID CRAWFORD-MUHAMMAD (Plainfield, NJ/Plainfield), making just the fourth start of his career and third in a row in place of injured starting centerDAVID JONES (Millville, NJ/Cumberland Regional), continues to be an amazing surprise. After scoring just 22 points and grabbing 37 rebounds as a reserve in his first 14 games of the season, Crawford-Muhammad put together another outstanding performance with eight points on 4-of-4 shooting, seven rebounds and two steals in 28 minutes and in three starts, has collected 20 points and 32 rebounds.
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