Box score
NEWARK, NJ—Visiting Longwood dominated the final minutes of both halves and it had the game's dominant player in Antwan Carter, who came off the bench for a game-high 22 points plus nine rebounds to pace the Lancers' 77-70 win over NJIT in the season finale for both teams Wednesday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
Carter, a long and active post player, was one of four double-figure scorers for Longwood, which also got 18 points from junior swingman Dana Smith, 13 from senior guard Ryan Bogan and 12 from junior guard Kevin Swecker in closing what was, by far, its best record in five seasons of NCAA Division I competition.
The Lancers, who preceded NJIT in making the transition from Division II to Division I by two years, finished this season at 17-14, far surpassing their previous high of 10 wins in a season.
Longwood is in its second season as a full member of Division I after playing three seasons in reclassifying status. NJIT completed its third, and expectedly final, season of reclassifying status with Wednesday's game against Longwood.
NJIT's scoring leaders in the 2008-09 finale were sophomore guards Justin Garris and Jheryl Wilson, each of whom scored 16 points.
Wednesday's scoring total was a new career high for Justin Garris, who previously scored 13 points three different times.
Wilson, meanwhile, raised his season scoring average to 12.6 points per game, edging him to the top of the individual team season scoring list past freshman Isaiah Wilkerson, who scored 10 points against Longwood and finished his season averaging 12.5 points.
Junior captain Gary Garris added 14 points for NJIT and became the first player in school history to start 31 games in a season. Gary and younger brother Justin also go in the record book as the only NJIT players to appear in 31 games in a season.
Gary Garris added seven rebounds on the night, second to teammate Paulius Skema, who led all rebounders with a personal career-high of 12. They helped NJIT to a 40-28 team rebounding advantage in the game.
In a game neither team led by more than eight points at any time, the Highlanders, playing their second game in two days, led before the home stretch of each half, but couldn't close the deal successfully either time.
After Justin Garris staked NJIT to a 68-64 lead on a layup with 3:49 left, Longwood outscored the Highlanders, 13-2, the rest of the way to pull out the win.
Carter, who gave NJIT fits with 18 points and 11 rebounds off the bench the first time the teams met (63-51 at Longwood on January 24), got 13 points and seven rebounds in 16 second-half minutes in Wednesday's rematch.
He erased the NJIT lead by scoring the next four points after Justin Garris had made it 68-64 and then three other Longwood teammates contributed points in the decisive closing 13-2 rally.
Longwood had done something similar in the first half. Trailing 33-27 with 2:45 left in the half, the visitors outscored NJIT by 12-2 to claim a 39-35 lead at the break. Bogan hit two three-pointers and Carter made two baskets for 10 of the 12 points in the closing spurt.
Smith, with 11 points, followed by Carter (9 points) and Bogan (8) led Longwood at the break. Wilkerson and Wilson each had eight points to lead the Highlanders at halftime.
NJIT, which opened the game with an 8-2 lead, went up by what would be a game-high of eight points, 27-19, with 6:24 left in the half on a Gary Garris jumper. The Highlanders stayed then on top until Bogan drained a three-pointer to make it 37-35 for Longwood with 1:08 left in the first half.
The score stayed close into the second half, but Longwood had its lead up to five, 51-46, when Swecker made a long three-point shot with 15:08 to play, but NJIT used an 8-2 run--the last four points from Wilson--to briefly reclaim the lead, 54-53, with 12:29 left.
Carter, who plays well with his back to the basket, but can also hit mid-range jump shots and is also deadly attacking the basket looking for offensive rebounds, then unkleashed eight unanswered points in just under two minutes and the Lancers led by seven, 61-54.
The visitors still led by five with 8:15 remaining, but the Highlanders again fought back, using an 8-0 run capped by two Gary Garris free throws to take a 66-63 lead with 5:09 on the clock.
Longwood's Carter broke the run with a free throw, but Justin Garris made a steal and layup to give NJIT the 68-64 lead at 3:49.
The Lancers then ran off a decisive 9-0 run before NJIT's Wilkerson made a pair of free throws with 1:06 left. But the Highlanders, who missed all four of their shots in the final 40 seconds, got no closer.
NJIT, which has undergone a rocky couple of years in its second and third reclassifying seasons, can look at Longwood as an example of the kind of steady progress that is possible for a Division I neophyte.
Longwood, which began the reclassification process to Division I two years ahead of NJIT, played a Division I schedule for the first time in 2004-05 and posted a 1-30 record (the same mark NJIT had in 2008-09).
Two years later after the 1-30 debut season, the Lancers were still building and lost both of their 2006-07 games against NJIT, even though they won nine games for the season. This season, however, Longwood took the next step, ending its fifth season of Division I competion with a 17-14 record that included noteworthy victories over George Washington and James Madison.
NJIT, of course, will need a lot of work to get from where it is to where it can win 17 games in a season at the top level, but many strides were made this year in building a comprehensive program infrastructure that will translate into future wins.
The individual statistical leaders for 2008-09 included two juniors, a sophomore and freshman on a team that had no seniors. In addition to Wilson (12.6 ppg) and Wilkerson (12.5 ppg), Gary Garris was a third double-figure scorer, averaging 10.7 points.
Gary Garris led the Highlanders with 5.7 rebounds per game and he also led with 49 steals. Wilson's 67 assists led the Highlanders in that category. Junior Dan Stonkus, who started the first 29 games, but missed the last two due to a concussion, had a team-leading 36 blocked shots, raising his three-year career total in that category to 126, which is fourth on the NJIT career list.
