Box score
NEWARK, NJ—Chris Flores and Isaiah Wilkerson combined for 40 points, including some big tallies with the outcome of the game on the line, as NJIT scored a hard-fought 66-59 win against visiting Texas-Pan American in Great West Conference men's basketball late Saturday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
NJIT is 8-15 overall and 3-3 in the Great West, while Texas-Pan American is 4-24 overall and is 3-6 Great West.
The win raises NJIT's season record in the Fleisher Athletic Center to 7-3 and their total home record to 7-4, guaranteeing the Highlanders their first winning home record since they began Division I competition in 2006-07. Their two remaining home games are next week—Thursday at the Prudential Center against South Dakota and Saturday back on campus against North Dakota.
Flores led all scorers with 23 points (two shy of his career-best 25 at Wagner on December 28), while Wilkerson scored an efficient 17 points, making six of nine shots from the field and four of five free throws--all four in the last 1:55 with the outcome in doubt. Jheryl Wilson (11 points) rounded out the double-figure scorers for the Highlanders.
Flores also shared the NJIT rebounding lead (6) and made three steals. Senior center Dan Stonkus had six rebounds for the Highlanders.
The top scorer for Texas-Pan Am was junior guard Nick Weiermiller who finished with 19 points (16 in the second half) and shot 5-for-8 on three-pointers overall (4-for-6 in the second half). Freshman guard Aaron Urbanus added 13 points for the Broncs, while senior forward Luis Valera scored 11. Valera and Matt Mierzycki shared the UTPA rebounding lead with six apiece.
While all wins are important, Saturday's triumph against Texas-Pan American was especially so in the context of NJIT's most recent game, a loss to Houston Baptist two days earlier, and the first time the Highlanders played UTPA back on January 14.
Against Houston Baptist on Thursday in the Prudential Center, the Highlanders had built a nine-point halftime lead only to lose in the end, 62-58. And back in Edinburg, Texas, NJIT had played what may have been its poorest game of the season in losing to the Broncs, 66-53.
With that in mind, Saturday's first half was especially encouraging, as NJIT, the top defensive team in the Great West, held Texas-Pan Am to 33 percent shooting from the field on 8-for-24 shooting, including 3-for-9 on three-pointers.
At the same time, the Highlanders made 15 of 28 shots themselves and scored the last six points of the first half for a 32-21 lead at the break, paced by nine points apiece from Flores and Wilson.
With Thursday's nine-point halftime lead that turned into a four-point loss fresh in everyone's memory, NJIT scored the first four points of the second half for what would be its biggest lead, 36-21, with 18:10 left in the game.
However, Texas-Pan American was not done, as the Broncs heated up from the perimeter, making six of 10 second-half three-point tries, led by Weiermiller's 4-for-6. And to the credit of the Broncs' shooters, many of their threes were from deep, were contested, or both.
Fueled by the strong three-point shooting, plus a 10-for-13 overall day at the foul line, Texas-Pan American made some pushes in the second half, including a 15-3 run in less than five minutes after NJIT took its 15-point lead early in the half. The Broncs run included three three-pointers by Weiermiller and they got the score down to 39-36 when Urbanus scored a layup with 13:20 left.
Unlike on Thursday against Houston Baptist, when the Highlanders could find enough answers, they answered when the threats from UTPA were the greates..
NJIT responded to the Urbanus bucket with a Flores layup on the next possession and, after a defensive stop, Wilkerson hit a pull-up jumper to give the Highlanders a little more air, 43-36 at 12:01.
The Highlanders eventually worked their lead back to 51-41, on a three by Flores with 7:19 left. But Texas-Pan Am would not go away and cut the deficit back to three, 57-54, on another Weiermiller three with 2:45 left.
The Broncs also got the deficit down to three 42 second later, but each time it happened, the Highlanders answered with a score of their own. And after Valera's free throw trimmed NJIT's lead to three for the final time, 58-55, with 2:03 left, the Highlanders responded by making six straight free throws—four by Wilkerson and two by Flores—to help close out the win.
NJIT made 27 of its 53 overall field goal attempts, making more than 50 percent of its shots (50.9 pct.) in a game for the second time this season.
NJIT will head west for a Great West Conference game at North Dakota on Tuesday at 2 pm CST. That contest is a makeup of a game that had been scheduled for February 11 but was postponed due to a severe winter storm that cancelled most flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport.
