Box Score
OREM, UT – The NJIT women's basketball team fought to within three points of Utah Valley University with 1:17 left in the game, but the Wolverines held off the Highlanders, 70-61, in Great West Conference women's basketball action at the UVU Events Center Thursday afternoon.
Utah Valley ends its regular season schedule with a 7-22 overall record, 3-9 in the conference. The Wolverines received a game-high 27 points from Jenna Johnson. The sophomore guard was 11-for-18 from the field and made three of four shots from behind the arc.
Johnson got 19 of her 27 points in the first half and led three double-figure scorers for Utah Valley. Senior Julie Smith, preseason GWC Player of the Year, tallied 14 points while Erika Newbold added 13. The 6-foot-0 center was 7-for-8 at the free throw line.
NJIT (11-15, 6-4 GWC) was led by Melanie Griffin, who shot 6-of-8 from the field for a team-high 13 points. Junior Jessica Gerald was the other double-figure scorer for NJIT with 11 points. Forward Kehinde Oyelola added eight points and seven rebounds while Ivana Seric and Maria Sanchez scored six points apiece. Seric pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
The Highlanders led 14-7 on a three-pointer made by Gerald at the 13-minute mark but Utah Valley exploded for a 13-2 spurt taking a 20-16 lead at 8:03 on a three-point basket by Johnson.
A layup by Sanchez at the 6:07 mark pulled NJIT within one of the Wolverines, 22-21. Both teams traded baskets over the next two minutes and Utah Valley would score the final five points of the first half.
High scorers at the half were Johnson for Utah Valley and freshman Rayven Johnson with seven for the Highlanders.
Trailing 33-27, NJIT opened up the second half on a 6-2 run for a 35-33 score, in favor of the Wolverines. The Highlanders knotted the contest at 41 on a layup by Griffin with less than 14 minutes left to go but the Wolverines built a nine-point lead, 50-41, sparked by senior Asumui Nakayama's jumper a 13:14.
NJIT cut the Wolverine lead down to five, 57-52, when Griffin sank a three-pointer with 4:27 remaining. Utah Valley pushed its lead to eight, 64-56, on three different occasions late in the second half, on a pair of free throws made by Nakayama at 1:53.
The Highlanders scored five straight points sparked by Gerald's three-pointer at 1:44 and a pair of free throws at 1:17 by Seric, slimmed the Wolverine lead to three, 64-61.
Utah Valley outscored NJIT in the final minute, 6-0, closing out the contest from the free throw line. Nakayama was 4-of-4.
NJIT will travel to Chicago State on Saturday for a Noon tipoff and will conclude its regular season at South Dakota on Sunday at 6pm. The date at South Dakota is a makeup of a game that had been scheduled for February 13. It was postponed due to a winter storm that cancelled flights out of Newark.
