Men's Basketball Defeats FDU as Bolden and Awad Score Career Highs

The NJIT men's basketball team defeats FDU, 91-78, led by freshman pair David Bolden and Rocco Awad on Saturday evening.

The Highlanders offense was clicking early on shooting 8-15 from the field halfway through the first half. The team's hot start slowed down as turnovers caused the Knights to surge back into the game.

The Highlanders saw a lead as big as 15 points with just under six minutes to go until half, shrink to three with just over two minutes left in the first half.

Freshman David Bolden led the way for the Highlanders after twenty minutes with nine points. Overall, the Highlanders had one of their most efficient scoring halves of this young season shooting 11-21 from the field (52.4%).

The Highlanders exploded to start the second half going on a 15-0 run to get their biggest lead at that time of the game with 19. Sophomore Ari Fulton and Bolden hit back-to-back threes to send the fans at the Bloom Wellness & Events Center into a frenzy.

After the Highlanders big run out of the half, they maintained a double-digit lead until the buzzer, including their biggest lead of 20 points. The Highlanders also led from tip-off to final buzzer not being down once in the game.

Bolden, coming off America East Rooke of the Week honors, scored a new career high with 23 points on 7-11 shooting from the field.

Freshman Rocco Awad went a perfect 3-3 from behind the arc and recorded a new career high with 15 points off the bench and Fulton recorded another double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. 

As a team, the Highlanders shot an impressive 28-46 from the field (60.9%) and 12-26 from three (46.2%).

The last time the Highlanders started off a season 3-1 was back during the 2015-16 season.

Next Up
NJIT is travels down to Philadelphia on Tuesday, Nov. 18 to take on Drexel for a 7 p.m. start time. Stay up to date on all things NJIT Men's Basketball throughout the season by following @NJITHoops on X/Twitter and Instagram.