Box score

PISCATAWAY, NJ—Freshman Chris Flores scored a game-high 19 points for NJIT, but the fast-closing Highlanders came up short Saturday afternoon in a 71-62 loss at Rutgers in the Louis Brown Athletic Center.

Flores, who has registered his career high as the leading scorer in each of the last two games, scored 13 of his points in a second half that saw NJIT outscore the Big East Conference team, 34-32, on the Scarlet Knights' home court.

In addition to Flores, whose six steals matched the school record for steals against a Division I opponent, NJIT got 18 points from junior Jheryl Wilson and 12 from sophomore captain Isaiah Wilkerson.

Wilkerson and Ryan Regis shared the Highlanders rebounding lead with five apiece.

Sophomore guard Mike Rosario scored 15 points to pace 8-2 Rutgers, but the most important player for the Scarlet Knights was senior center Hamady Ndiaye, who barely missed a triple-double, scoring 11 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and blocking a career-high nine shots. The 7-footer, who previously had three career games with 8 blocks, has 52 blocks in 10 games this season and 265 blocks in his career.

Freshman forward Austin Johnson, who shot 9-for-9 at the foul line, picked up 13 points for the victorious Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers did not trail after a Jonathan Mitchell layup made it 8-6 with 13:52 left in the first half, but the persistent Highlanders stayed reasonably close throughout the contest and were threatening to do more than that when the final buzzer sounded.

Mitchell, who scored eight of his team's first 12 points and then disappeared from the scoresheet for the rest of the day, was the key offensive player as Rutgers seized a 19-6 lead midway through the first half.

NJIT had led, 6-4, on a layup by Wilson with 15:34 left in the first half, but Mitchell answered 12 seconds later, sparking a 15-0 Rutgers run that lasted just over five minutes until Wilson made a pair of free throws for the Highlanders with 10:32 on the clock.

The Scarlet Knights got their lead as high as 14 points, 27-13, but NJIT fought back with a 10-4 run of its and closed to within eight, 31-23, when Drejon Scott made his only basket of the game, a three-pointer, with 5:30 left in the half.

Rutgers led at halftime, 39-28, taking advantage of a decided edge around the basket (24-10 in the paint) and a 14-4 edge in points-off-turnovers, plus a 13-3 lead in bench scoring.

Despite the disparity in scoring in the paint, the rebounding was close (18-16 for Rutgers) and on the perimeter, NJIT made four first-half three-point baskets to none for RU.

Indeed, NJIT might have been even closer than 11 points of the lead with some better foul shooting. The Highlanders were a mere 4-for-9 and one of their misses was on the front end of a one-and-one. Rutgers, meanwhile, was 9-for-10 at the stripe.

The top scorer in the first half was NJIT's Wilson, who helped keep his team in the game with 14 points, while Mitchell and Ndiaye checked in with eight points apiece for the Knights.

NJIT, which had experienced difficulty to open the second half in losses to Vermont, Seton Hall and Saint Peter's, halted that trend against Rutgers, outscoring the Scarlet Knights, 6-3, in the first 2:08 after the break.

The Highlanders' hopes of getting closer, however, were undermined by fouls, as they picked up their sixth team foul with 13:49 left and then their 10th foul with 10:31 left, putting Rutgers in the double bonus the rest of the way.

That proved especially helpful to Rutgers, which saw its field goal percentage for the second half fall to 36 percent (8-22), after a 56 percent (15-27) first half. Still, despite making only three field goals between 12:28 and 4:38, the Scarlet Knights continued to add to their score with 10 made free throws in the same span.

Rutgers, which was 13-for-16 on second-half free throws, got its lead as high as 19 points on two occasions, the latest on a Mike Coburn bucket that made it 63-44 with 7:50 left.

But just as the Highlanders had put on a strong finish in the first half, they again rallied in the second half and outscored Rutgers the rest of the way, 18-8, including 9-1 over the final three minutes.

The second-half stats showed some dramatic departures from the first half. After a nearly even first half on the boards, Rutgers had a 23-14 advantage in the second half.

But whereas NJIT had been outscored 14-4 in points-off-turnovers in the first half, the Highlanders took advantage of 16 Rutgers miscues and turned the tables, with NJIT outscoring Rutgers, 22-10 in points-off-turnovers.

The Scarlet Knights' superior depth continued to show in the second half, as their bench outscored the NJIT reserves 14-4 for a final 27-7 margin in bench scoring.

Although Rutgers has a 3-0 lead in the series against NJIT, the nine-point margin was the closest ever for the Highlanders in six all-time games against teams from the Big East Conference (the closest previous margin came in a 66-55 loss to Rutgers in December 2007).

Having completed the second of their two scheduled games against Big East opponents this season, the Highlanders will stay in the deep end of the college basketball pool.

NJIT is scheduled for its first-ever game against a team from the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference with a contest at Virginia on Monday at 7 pm.