Nov. 17, 2007

Box Score

NEWARK, NJ - Visiting Fairleigh Dickinson used a strong second half to score a 71-58 women's basketball win over NJIT in the Highlanders home opener Saturday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

The Knights, who trailed by a point at the half, outscored NJIT, 35-21, over the final 20 minutes to pick up the victory.

The top scorer for FDU was senior forward Jennifer Walkling, who finished with a double-double, scoring a game-high 18 points and pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds.

Senior guard Shanay Freeman (17 points) and freshman guard Jenna Strich (14) were the other double-figure scorers for the Knights.

NJIT's top scorer was freshman guard Jessica Gerald, who set a new career high with 13 points in her third career game and first start. She had scored 10 points off the bench at Saint Peter's in the preceding game.

Two other Highlanders just missed double-figure scoring. Taiwo Oyelola and Jill Dickinson chipped in nine points apiece.

Oyelola was NJIT's top rebounder, with eight. Maya Al-Shingieti and Erika Velez each had six rebounds for the Highlanders.

Nine different players scored for NJIT and all of them had at least four points. Seven of those players had already reached four points by halftime.

NJIT came out blazing to start the first half, leading by as many as nine points on two occasions, the latest at 25-16 with 10:01 left in the half on Jackie McCaffrey's jumper.

The hot shooting continued and NJIT had put up shooting percentages of 65 percent (11-17) on all field goal tries, 67 percent (2-3) on three pointers and 71 percent (5-7) on free throws by the eight-minute media timeout in the first half.

However, despite the hot shooting and an 11-7 rebounding advantage to that point, the Highlanders lead was just three, 29-26, with 7:17 left in the first half, signaling that NJIT was in for a battle.

The game remained close, as the Highlanders took a 37-36 halftime lead and NJIT still led, 42-41, on Dickinson's bucket with 15:35 left in the game.

After a series of misses by both teams, FDU pulled ahead, 43-42, on Walkling's inside basket off a feed from Christy Altamirano, who had rebounded her own miss, at the 13:13 mark.

Walkling's basket, which gave the Knights the lead for good, began a 10-3 spurt for FDU, capped by Strich's three-pointer that made it 51-45 for the Knights with 10:36 left. All of NJIT's points in the stretch came at the foul line.

The visitors never allowed their lead to get under six the rest of the way. They got their first double-digit lead, 60-50, on two Strich free throws with 5:22 left.

Jessica Gerald, the NJIT freshman, then hit a pair of three-pointers and finally a layup off of a steal and an assist by Erika Velez for the last eight Highlander points of the game, as NJIT outscored the visitors, 8-3, in the last 2:17.

NJIT has a break of more than a week before it returns to action, coming back to host UMBC on Wednesday, November 28 at 7 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.