Box score
OREM, UT—Houston Baptist dominated the first eight minutes and the last eight minutes and when the final buzzer sounded Friday night, the second-seeded Huskies had a 74-64 win over number six NJIT in semifinal round action at the Great West Conference men's basketball tournament hosted by Utah Valley University.
Houston Baptist (12-20 overall, including 9-3 in the Great West regular season and 2-0 in the GWC Tournament) will face regular season champion South Dakota, which won the other semifinal, coming from behind to defeat Texas-Pan American, in Saturday night's Great West Conference championship game.
NJIT, meanwhile, completes its second season under head coach Jim Engles with a dramatically improved 10-21 record—nine games better than in 2008-09.
The Highlanders had a balanced attack against Houston Baptist, with four double-figure scorers led by freshman all-conference guard Chris Flores who scored 17 points, including 12-for-12 at the foul line. Sammy Schickel came off the NJIT bench to score 14 points, including 4-for-6 shooting from three-point range, while all-conference junior Jheryl Wilson added 13 points and all-GWC honorable mention honoree Isaiah Wilkerson, a sophomore, chipped in 11 points.
Flores was named Saturday as a member of the all-tournament team.
Houston Baptist got a game-high 24 points from all-conference and Newcomer of the Year Andrew Gonzalez, who picked up 18 points in the second half after NJIT had held him to just six in the first half.
Freshman guard Miles Dixon, who didn't play the first time the Huskies met NJIT and scored four points in the second meeting, scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds against the Highlanders Friday night.
Senior guard Wendell Preadom finished with 11 points. Senior center Mario Flaherty, an all-conference player who scored a career-high 30 points against NJIT the first time the teams played, but who did not play in the second meeting, scored eight points and was limited to just 1-for-7 shooting from the floor, all from in close, nonetheless grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, leading the Huskies to a decisive 44-25 advantage on the glass.
The game began poorly for the Highlanders, who fell behind 21-7 when HBU's Damian Lewis hit a short turnaround jump shot in the lane with 11:45 left in the first half. Included in that lead was a 10-0 advantage in points off of turnovers for the Huskies.
NJIT, however, has developed into a team that competes well in the face of adversity, despite having just one active senior and one junior.
The Highlanders answered the 21-7 deficit with a 15-0 run in a span of just under five minutes, capped by an Isaiah Wilkerson triple that put the Highlanders on top, 22-21, with 6:31 left in the half.
Houston Baptist came back to reclaim the lead by a point and there were two ties before the Highlanders used a 7-2 spurt in a matter of 1:03 to take a 33-28 lead after a pair of Flores free throws with 2:47 left in the half.
The Huskies twice came back to within a point in the half, but NJIT's Wilson scored an off-balance driving layup with 17 seconds left to give the Highlanders a 37-34 advantage at the break. Flores, who had uncharacteristic shooting difficulties from the field, still posted 13 points, largely on the strength of 10-for-10 shooting at the line. Wilkerson had 10 first-half points, as well. Dixon's seven points paced the Huskies in the first half.
Houston Baptist, which averaged nearly 75 points per game in conference play, came back to tie the score at 38 apiece with 16:06 on the clock, but the Highlanders got a nice finishing layup from Ryan Regis and a three from Schickel to go back up, 43-38, just 24 seconds later.
However, NJIT had trouble containing Houston Baptist's drives and further difficulty keeping the Huskies off the offensive backboard without fouling. As a result, the Highlanders picked up their sixth foul to put HBU in the bonus with 14:09 left and their 10th foul to set up a double bonus for the Huskies for the last 10:33.
That proved especially problematic for NJIT, since Houston Baptist, which had gotten just two free throws attempts in the first half, would go to the line for 25 tries—and make 21—in the second half.
And HBU's 23-for-27overall at the foul line was not especially uncharacteristic. Gonzalez, who shot 10-for-11 on Friday against the Highlanders, came into the game shooting better than 80 percent at the line for the season, having made 171 of 213 tries coming in.
Having every NJIT foul leading to two free throws by a good foul shooting team, added pressure on the Highlanders to keep up their own scoring down the stretch. They held on for a lengthy period, staying ahead or tied for the entire second half until Gonzalez scored a rare four-point play on a three plus a free throw to give HBU a 55-53 edge with 9:16 left.
PJ Miller drove to the basket for a layup and Schickel drained what would be his final three of the game, giving the Highlanders a 58-55 lead at the 8:27 mark.
However, NJIT would manage just six more points the rest of the way and Houston Baptist, which scored six straight after the Schickel three-pointer, went ahead to stay on two free throws with 7:42 left that made it 59-58.
After two more Gonzalez free throws, Flores scored a pair of his own to pull NJIT back within a point with 6:42 remaining, but the Huskies used an 8-2 run over the next four minutes to put the game beyond NJIT's reach on this night.
“I thought we played hard and for the most part, we played well,” said Engles after the season-ending loss capping a trip that encompassed the last three regular season games plus two games in the GWC Tournament and has kept the Highlanders on the road continuously since March 3, with contests in Utah, Chicago, South Dakota, and back to Utah.
Engles continued: “Houston Baptist took control by forcing the tempo in the second half and we weren't able to match their effort on the glass in the second half (HBU, which had a small 16-13 edge on the boards in the first half, dominated the second-half rebounding, 28-12, including nine offensive rebounds after the break).”
That rebounding dominance helped offset the fact that NJIT held the winners to barely 30 percent shooting from the field in the second half (8-26).
Senior Dan Stonkus wrapped up his career Friday night. The only player to be on all four NJIT Division I teams, Stonkus needed extra perseverance to make it on the court in 2009-10. A three-year starter, he injured his knee in a September accident at his home and underwent major knee surgery. Initially expected to be out until at least February, he worked hard on his post-surgery rehabilitation and returned to game action a month ahead of projections on December 28.
He started the last 10 games and appeared in 20 total. He closed his career with 107 games played, 94 starts, 371 points, 482 rebounds and 144 blocked shots. The 482 rebounds and 145 blocks are the most in NJIT's Division I era and his blocks total ranks fourth in the program's overall history.
NJIT's three all-conference honorees paced most of the statistical categories.
Wilson (all-GWC 2nd team) led the team in scoring (14.2 ppg), rebounding (5.2 rpg) and assists (76).
Flores (all-GWC 2nd team; all-GWC Newcomer) chipped in 14.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, and 69 assists, while establishing new program Division I records for three-point baskets (58) and steals (55).
Wilkerson (all-GWC honorable mention) got 13 points and 4.9 rebounds, while contributing 61 assists and 37 steals (2nd behind Flores).
Miller, the freshman point guard, missed seven games with a stress fracture in his foot (Wilkerson also missed two games with a similar injury). Miller finished with 69 assists, tying Flores for second on the team in that category.
Sammy Schickel, who missed the entire 2008-09 season due to injury, increased his contribution as he regained his basketball rhythm and was a valuable player off the bench in conference play. He scored in double figures five times from January 30 on and shot 7-for-11 from distance in the two GWC Tournament games.
As a team, the Highlanders improved dramatically across the board, upping their scoring average to 61.5 points per game this season from 49.5 ppg a year ago. In doing so, they trimmed more than 12 points per game off their negative scoring margin,
They made marginal improvement in team rebounding, but perhaps their biggest improvement came in turnover differential. Averaging 18.3 turnovers and a margin of -3.9 per game in 2008-09, this season's Highlanders, despite playing at a fast pace, cut their turnovers to 14.9 per game and actually had a positive turnover margin of +1.0.
They were 8-5 in home games, including 8-3 in the Fleisher Athletic Center and went 1-1 in neutral site games at the Great West Tournament. Next year, the Highlanders will look to build on the improvement while also shoring up areas such as road record, where they won just once, including 0-6 in the conference (compared to 4-2 in home conference games).
