Dec. 21, 2007

Box Score

NEWARK, NJ - Freshman Maya Al-Shingieti scored NJIT's final basket on a put-back layup with 2:35 left and the Highlanders held on for a 55-54 women's basketball win over visiting Wagner Friday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

Al-Shingieti's bucket gave NJIT a 55-51 lead, which wound up being enough when Wagner managed three points--all on free throws--the rest of the way. The missed free throw down the stretch was one of just two misses all day for the Seahawks, who connected on 17 of 19 free throw attempts (89.5 percent) in the game.

The Highlanders secured the victory when their tight defense forced a Wagner turnover with eight-tenths of a second remaining. Down a point with the ball, the Seahawks had used a timeout with 11.3 seconds left to set up their offense for the final bid at victory.

NJIT's Al-Shingieti finished the game with eight points and a team-leading six rebounds. The high scorer for the Highlanders was another freshman, Keri Washington, who notched a career-best 11 points on a pair of field goals and 7-for-9 shooting at the foul line.

Highlander junior Jill Dickinson matched her career steals high with a game-best five, while Erika Velez and Kehinde Oyelola had four steals apiece for NJIT, which produced 18 steals as a team.

Game scoring honors went to Wagner senior Chelsey Bunyer, who scored 18, with 12 coming in the second half.

Freshman Ashley Olsen came off the bench for a game-high nine rebounds and senior Ali Ridge grabbed eight for the Seahawks, who enjoyed a 39-26 rebounding advantage as a team. Most of that advantage came in the second half when Wagner outrebounded NJIT, 21-9.

Having seen her team start slowly in several of its recent losses, NJIT coach Margaret McKeon adjusted her starting lineup for the Wagner game. She also regularly substituted for all five players on the floor at the first-half media timeouts, which come on the first dead ball after the 16, 12, 8 and 4-minute marks of each half.

On Friday, the Highlanders began the game with higher energy than the visitors and grabbed a 9-2 lead when Velez, who came on in the first wave of substitutions at 15:38, hit two free throws with 14:26 left.

The Highlanders were ahead, 13-4, after Kehinde Oyelola's steal and basket at 11:56 and they pushed their lead to double-digits, 20-10 on Jill Dickinson's three-pointer with eight minutes left in the half.

NJIT led by at least seven for the rest of the half and the Highlanders outscored the visitors, 5-0, over the last 2:03 for a 28-16 halftime lead.

Dickinson had seven points and four steals to lead NJIT over the first 20 minutes, while Bunyer's six points paced Wagner.

Things appeared well in hand for NJIT nearly midway through the second half, as the Highlanders took their biggest lead of the game--14 points at 41-27 on a traditional three-point play by Kehinde Oyelola with 11:13 left.

But Wagner, which had been getting open looks, but not making the shots early in the second half, finally got hot.

Trailing by 14 at the 11:13 mark, the Seahawks spurted for eight unanswered points in the next 1:41, trimming the deficit by more than half, capped by Olsen's two foul shots that made the score 41-35, NJIT, with 9:32 left.

NJIT's Al-Shingieti made two foul shots to stop the bleeding temporarily, but Wagner then spurted for nine more unanswered points and a 44-43 lead after Bunyer's off-balance jump shot with 7:31 remaining. In all, Wagner outscored NJIT, 16-2, in less than four minutes from 11:13 to 7:31.

Having lost the big lead, NJIT showed its resilience as soon as Wagner went ahead. The Highlanders answered with six straight points and took a 49-44 lead on Jackie McCaffrey's two free throws at the 5:51 mark.

The Seahawks, however, came back to force one more tie--51-51 on Andrea Reed's two foul shots with 3:29 left.

Adriana Johnson scored on a 10-foot jumper in the lane to put NJIT back ahead at 3:07 and Al-Shingieti's put-back at 2:35 gave the Highlanders the 55-51 cushion they needed.

Friday's win was the second of the season for NJIT, which is 2-3 with a seven-point loss and a four-point loss in its last five home games.

The Highlanders will have a one-week holiday break before returning on December 28 to play in the high-caliber Hilton Philadelphia Hawk Classic, hosted by Saint Joseph's (PA). NJIT's first foe, Saint Joe's, is 5-5 and won 19 games last season. NJIT's second-round opponent on December 29 will be either Auburn, 11-1 this season and a 21-win team in 2006-07 or Davidson, 23-9 last season and 6-4 this year.