Nov. 11, 2006

Box Score

NEW YORK - Clayton Barker's driving reverse layup along the baseline with 31 seconds left lifted New Jersey Institute of Technology to a 56-55 win over defending Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season champion Manhattan Saturday. It was NJIT's first men's basketball game at the Division I level.

Barker, the senior guard, finished tied for the team scoring lead with 12 points, matching sophomore transfer Nesho Milosevic, who had a double-double, with 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench in his first game as a Highlander. Junior Kraig Peters picked up 11 points and 8 rebounds for NJIT.

Manhattan got a game-high 13 points from junior center Arturo Dubois, who also finished with 7 rebounds. A preseason first team all-conference pick, Dubois was defended well by the Highlanders, who held him to 5-for-14 shooting from the field and also forced him into 8 turnovers. Freshman Christian Jackson was the only other double-figure scorer for the Jaspers, finishing with 11 points.

The game was extremely tight for most of the first half, as neither team led by more than five points until the Jaspers went up, 27-21, with 3:45 left. Eventually, Manhattan built an eight-point halftime advantage, 33-25, helped by the fact that NJIT managed only six points over the last 8:52.

The dry spell continued into the second half for the Highlanders, who fell behind by 14, 39-25, before Marc Milbourne Swan made a basket with 15:57 left.

NJIT still trailed by double-digits until Courcy Magnus hit a three-pointer with 13:25 left, cutting the deficit to 40-32. The junior, who started all 27 games a year ago, played just one minute in the first half. But he helped trigger NJIT's comeback, scoring 7 points, handing out a pair of assists and making 3 steals in 9 second-half minutes.

Magnus' three-pointer was part of a 12-0 NJIT run that included six points from the opportunistic Milosevic, who capped the run with a layup that put his team on top, 41-40, 11:12 left.

Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the way, with three ties and eight lead changes, including swings on the last four scores of the game. The game was tied on a dunk by Dubois with 5:31 left, but he was called for a technical foul with 5:30 left.

Magnus hit the ensuing free throws, putting NJIT on top, 52-50. Manhattan's Patrick Bouli made a rare three-point connection for the Jaspers, who shot just 4-for-24 on threes for the game. Bouli's shot with 2:35 left boosted his team into a 53-52 lead.

Barker put NJIT back on top, 54-53, on a jumper with 1:44 left and Manhattan got its final score on a basket that was accidentally tipped in by Milosevic and credited to Dubois.

That set the stage for Barker, who had taken an ill-advised shot from the top of the key nearly 25 feet away on his team's previous possession. The senior, who had a half-dozen late game-winning shots the previous two seasons, did it again in his Division I debut, driving from left to right along the baseline and flipping the reverse underhand layup in, avoiding Manhattan's attempts at a block on the small guard.

Manhattan took a timeout with 16 seconds left and Jackson missed a three-point try on the subsequent shot, which was corralled by Peters to secure the win for the Highlanders.

NJIT will play its home opener on Tuesday at 7 pm, when the Highlanders host Rider in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.