Box Score
CHICAGO—Senior guard David Holston, one of the top scorers in college basketball, led the way with 22 points in explosive Chicago State's 85-69 men's basketball win over visiting NJIT Saturday night.
The Cougars, who have topped 100 points in four games this season, including a 123-121 quadruple overtime loss to Utah Valley two nights before hosting the Highlanders, just about scored their 82.9 points per game season average against NJIT.
The game totals of 85 points allowed and 69 points scored were new season highs for the Highlanders.
Holston, who led the nation in three-point field goals per game last year, again leads the nation in that category and is third in scoring nationally (26.4 ppg). Against the Highlanders, he connected on four three-point tries in the opening five minutes, raising his season total on triplesin to 111.
He finished with 22 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Fellow senior John Cantrell, a spectacular athlete who averages 18.7 points per game, collected 19 points against NJIT.
Sophomore forward Carl Montgomery added 18 points, plus seven rebounds and four blocked shots, while senior Mike Wilson came off the bench for 11 points, four assists and three steals. Senior Tawrence Walton led the Cougars on the boards with a game-high 12 rebounds.
NJIT also had four double-figure scorers, led by Isaiah Wilkerson with 18 points, backed by Gary Garris (17 points), Justin Garris (13) and Jheryl Wilson (10).
Wilson added a team-leading eight rebounds, plus a game-high five assists, with three steals. Gary Garris shared game honors with four steals.
Justin Garris' 13 points matched his career-best and Wilkerson, who has played 13 games for NJIT, extended his string of consecutive double-figure scoring games to 12.
Chicago State dominated the specialty stats, doubling the Highlanders scoring in the paint (32-16); enjoying a 28-15 margin in points-off-of-turnovers; plus 27-10 in second-chance points; and, 16-4 in fast-break points, many of them coming after turnovers.
Those categories underlined 19 offensive rebounds that played into both points-in-the-paint and second-chance points. The Cougars also made 18 steals and NJIT committed 29 turnovers.
Chicago State jumped out to an 11-4 lead, but NJIT eventually came back and claimed a 22-21 lead on Wilson's three-pointer with 8:46 left in the first half.
However, NJIT, which had made six of its first nine shots, and still had made more than half of its shots (10-19) at the 3:31 media timeout, went colder, after Wilson had given the Highlanders their last lead at 8:46, which made it more difficult to offset the mounting turnovers.
As a result, Chicago State took control by outscoring NJIT 22-5 in the nearly nine minutes after the Wilson trey. Chicago State's own Wilson, Mike, scored the last eight points of the half over 2:49 to cap his team's surge to a 43-27 halftime lead.
Holston (12 points) and Montgomery and Wilson, with 10 apiece, were already in double figures for the home team through the opening 20 minutes.
Much as they did early in the first half, the Highlanders shot well to start the second half, pulling to within 12, 61-49, with 11:06 left thanks in large part to 7-for-12 shooting from the field overall and 3-for-4 on three-pointers, including back-to-back threes by Wilkerson that immediately preceded a foul shot by Paulius Skema that made it 61-49.
Holston answered with a jump shot and then Cantrell made a pair of free throws to push Chicago State's lead back to 16 and it remained at least 13 points the rest of the way.
NJIT will play its next three games at home, beginning with a Tuesday 7 pm matchup in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center against first-time opponent Houston Baptist.
