Box score
NEWARK, NJ—Jheryl Wilson scored 24 points, leading five double-figure scorers for NJIT Sunday afternoon in a 91-73 Great West Conference win for the Highlanders over visiting North Dakota Sunday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
Wilson, a junior guard, also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds and added six assists for NJIT (9-17 overall, 4-5 Great West Conference).
Sunday's 91-point output was the most NJIT has ever scored against an NCAA Division I opponent, shattering the old mark of 79, done in an 86-79 loss at Lehigh on January 2. The Highlanders scored 78 in games against Longwood in 2007 and 2008. They also scored 96 points earlier this season against St. Joseph's (NY), which is not a Division I program.
Wilson, who netted 19 points in each of this week's previous two contests, was followed in the scoring Sunday by Isaiah Wilkerson, who finished with 21 points, his second-highest total of the season behind the 22 he notched at Lehigh.
The Highlanders also got 13 points apiece from freshman guards Chris Flores and PJ Miller, and 12 points off the bench from sophomore guard Sammy Schickel. Miller, whose 13 points were a career high, also posted eight assists, which were the most by an NJIT player this season and tied the program's Division I record, set by Andrew Engel against Lafayette in 2006.
North Dakota (8-20, 5-5 Great West) had four double-figure scorers of its own, led by senior guard Travis Bledsoe's 21 points. Jordan Allard added 15 points, while Travis Mertens scored 14 points and Derek Benter scored 10 for the Fighting Sioux.
Patrick Mitchell, who had scored 33 points for North Dakota and shot 10-for-13 on three-pointers when the teams met earlier in the week, was in foul trouble for much of the rematch and scored eight before fouling out.
As a team, the Highlanders tied their program Division I high with 11 three-point field goals, matching a mark they set just six days earlier at North Dakota. And their .519 overall field goal percentage on 28-for-54 shooting was their second-best effort of the year, topped only by the .540 they shot in a 71-46 win over Utah Valley on January 30.
Other program milestones included an 8-3 final mark this season in the Fleisher Athletic Center. Combined with 0-2 in Prudential Center home games, NJIT's 8-5 home mark was its first winning record at home since 2004-05, when the Highlanders were 7-5 at home in their second-to-last Division II season.
And the win against North Dakota was NJIT's sixth this season against a Division I foe, surpassing the five wins the previous high the Highlanders had in 2005-06, their first year competing at the Division I level.
Sunday's game, originally scheduled for Saturday, was delayed a day due to flight cancellations into the area caused by the major winter storm that struck the New York-New Jersey region on Thursday and Friday. It was also the second meeting in six days for the two teams, with the Fighting Sioux having won in Grand Forks, ND, last Tuesday afternoon, 90-78.
With that game and a disappointing offensive performance in Thursday's 68-58 Prudential Center loss to Great West-leading South Dakota, fresh in their memories, the Highlanders set the stage for their record-setting game Sunday with a torrid start, claiming a 24-11 lead just 6:42 into the game.
North Dakota twice cut the deficit to seven points midway through the first half, but the Highlanders pushed their advantage to 42-26 by halftime, led by Wilson and Schickel with 12 points apiece. Mertens led the Fighting Sioux with nine first-half points.
NJIT scored the first three baskets of the second half and extended its lead to as many as 27 points, 67-40, on Wilkerson's three-pointer with 11:43 left in the game.
North Dakota, which is a dangerous three-point shooting team, having made 198 on the season, including 16 of 25 in Tuesday's home win over NJIT, trimmed Sunday's 27-point deficit down as low 15 at 79-64 on Bledsoe's three-pointer with 4:44 left. But the Highlanders added 12 more points the rest of the way, including 7-for-8 at the foul—6-for-6 by Miller—to erase any comeback hopes for the visitors.
NJIT, which honored departing seniors Dan Stonkus and Gary Garris in pregame ceremonies on the occasion of their final college home games, will spend the rest of the season playing away from home.
The Highlanders will wrap up the regular season with a three-games-in-four-days weekend that will see them play on Thursday at Utah Valley, on Saturday at Chicago State, and on Sunday at South Dakota. The date at South Dakota is a makeup of a game that had been scheduled for February 13 in Vermillion, SD. It was postponed by storm-related airline flight cancellations out of Newark.
