Michael Ajayi scored his 1,000th career point and posted another double-double for Butler, which headed into the holiday break by throttling NJIT 101-52 on Monday afternoon in Indianapolis.
Ajayi led Butler’s balanced offense with 15 points and added 12 rebounds to make it his 10th double-double of the season, second in Division I to only Delrecco Gillespie of Kent State (11). Ajayi entered the game with 990 career points across three seasons at Pepperdine, Gonzaga and Butler, and he eclipsed 1,000 with a 3-pointer early in the second half.
The Bulldogs (10-3) were hot from the opening tipoff and poured in 55.7% of their field goal attempts, shooting 24-of-32 at the foul line to boot. They outrebounded the overmatched Highlanders 46-22.
Drayton Jones scored 14 points, Evan Haywood and Efeosa Oliogu-Elabor each notched 13, Finley Bizjack and Yohan Traore scored 11 apiece and Azavier “Stink” Robinson chipped in 10.
It was a career day for the freshman Oliogu-Elabor, whose scoring total, seven rebounds and 23 minutes all marked career highs. He saw increased action as Butler sat starting forward Jamie Kaiser Jr., who injured his ankle two days ago against Northwestern.
Sebastian Robinson and John Kelly came off the bench to lead NJIT (4-9) with 15 and 12 points, respectively. Kelly also paced NJIT with five rebounds and David Bolden scored 10 points.
Butler made 7 of 10 shots to start the game while NJIT missed its first 13 field goal tries, yielding a 17-0 Bulldogs lead. After Robinson finally got a shot to fall for the visitors, Jones elevated over two opponents and one teammate for a putback slam to make it 20-3.
The Bulldogs led by as many as 28 in the first half and by a 46-19 scoreline at halftime. The Highlanders opened the second half shooting 3 for 11 to drop to an abysmal 11 for 41 through the first 30 minutes and change.
Butler kept on churning out offense, and a 10-0 run capped by Oliogu-Elabor’s two free throws made it 77-27 with 9:44 still to play.
NJIT trailed by as many as 51 points before Robinson scored 11 on his own in the final 6:24.
–Field Level Media
