Box score
NEWARK, NJ—Dana Smith and Antwan Carter combined for 35 points and 20 rebounds to lead visiting Longwood past NJIT, 64-55, in men's basketball Saturday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
Smith, a senior forward, led all scorers with 19 points and added seven rebounds, while Carter, a sophomore center, scored 16 points to go with a game-high 13 rebounds, as the Lancers (7-16) won their third consecutive game, all in the last week.
NJIT (7-14), which had won its previous two, got 17 points from freshman guard Chris Flores and 16 points from junior guard Jheryl Wilson in the Highlanders' final non-conference game of the season.
Freshman forward Nick Lopez added 11 points for the Highlanders before fouling out the game. The 11 points were a new high against Division I competition for the NJIT rookie, whose previous scoring high against a Division I team was six against Seton Hall back on November 30.
Another freshman, guard PJ Miller came off the NJIT bench to lead the Highlanders in rebounds (9) and assists (4). Miller, who also scored eight points, was playing in his third game since returning from an eight-game absence brought on by a foot stress fracture. His nine rebounds were a career-best for the freshman whose previous single-game high had been five, which he has done twice.
NJIT, which never found its range on the perimeter, as evidenced by 2-for-19 from three-point distance for the game, allowed itself to get in a 16-point hole by halftime, a hole that ultimately proved too deep to escape completely, despite a significantly stronger showing all-around in the second half.
Although neither team was hitting jump shots, the points came freely in the opening minutes and the score stood at 11-8 for Longwood less than five minutes into the game, a pace better suited to the visitors' nearly 71 points per game coming in than to NJIT's 59 points per game average.
However, NJIT's lack of outside accuracy combined with too many turnovers soon took their toll and Longwood used two runs to take a commanding 36-20 halftime lead. Ahead 11-8 with 15:06 left in the half, the Lancers outscored NJIT 9-2 over the next 5:32, going ahead 20-10 on Martiz Washington's three-point basket at the 9:34 mark. Later, the Lancers closed out the half 13-3 over the final 6:50.
The Highlanders, who had shot a program Division I-best 54 percent from the field and committed just 10 turnovers in the entire game a week earlier in defeating Utah Valley, shot just 9-for-28 (1-for-9 on threes) in the first half and committed 10 turnovers in the opening half against Longwood.
The Lancers stretched their lead to as many as 18 points early in the second half and still led by 14, 50-36, after Carter's layup with 10:29 to play.
However, NJIT, which had tightened its defense and took better care of the ball (five total turnovers in the second half), rallied for its best offensive push of the day in the 3:49 that followed Carter's layup in a 12-4 burst that closed the score to 54-48 on Miller's jump shot at 6:40.
But Longwood held NJIT scoreless in the ensuing four minutes and on the other end of the floor the Lancers' two big guns, Smith and Carter, came through. Smith fed Carter for a layup and then Smith hitting four straight free throws to extend the lead back to 12 before the Highlanders could add another point of their own. By then, just 2:56 remained and NJIT never cut the deficit under eight the rest of the way.
The Highlanders, who have played their last three games at home, all on successive Saturdays, will take to the road this week for another Great West Conference trip, this time visiting first-time opponents North Dakota (Thursday) and South Dakota (Saturday).
