Box score

NEWARK, NJ—Isaiah Wilkerson scored a game-high 21 points, leading four double-figure scorers for NJIT Wednesday night, as the Highlanders pulled away in the second half for a 66-53 non-conference men's basketball win over visiting Fairleigh Dickinson in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center
 
NJIT (5-6) also got 14 points from Chris Flores, 12 points from Lamar Kearse, and 11 points from PJ Miller. Wilkerson, a senior forward, also made a game-high three steals.
 
Junior center Sean McCarthy came off the bench for a game-high six rebounds, leading the Highlanders to a 37-31 advantage in that category. Wilkerson added five rebounds for NJIT and he played 36 minutes without committing a turnover (NJIT's 10 turnovers as a team was the lowest total for the Highlanders this season against a Division I opponent).
 
NJIT took control with a 12-0 spurt early in the second half. The Highlanders led at the break, 30-28, but Fairleig tied the score on a pair of free throws 1:02 into the second half. NJIT then went on the 12-0 run in a span of 3:47 from 18:14 to 14:27, with eight points in the spurt coming from Kearse, who hit two 3-pointers and a pair of free throws.
 
Ahead by at least 10 points after Kearse's three with 14:27 left, the Highlanders took leads of as many as 19 points twice, the first on a pair of Flores free throws at the 6:21 mark.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson (1-10) lost its eighth straight contest, having gotten its only win of the season on November 18 against Saint Peter's, 73-62.
 
Lonnie Robinson, a junior college transfer in his first season with the Knights, led FDU's scorers with a season-high 12 points. The junior backup forward scored all 12 of his points in the second half. Robinson's previous high was 10 points against Saint Francis (PA) on December 3.
 
Lonnie Hayes, another junior college transfer for the Knights, scored eight first-half points and was the only FDU starter to finish in double-figures, netting 10 points. Five different players shared the Fairleigh Dickinson team rebounding lead, with four apiece.
 
NJIT led 30-28 after a first half that saw four ties and seven lead changes, with the Highlanders going into the locker room on top by scoring the last four points of the half, capped by Miller's 10-foot jump shot ahead of the halftime buzzer.
 
FDU had scored the game's first four points and opened an 11-6 lead on a jump shot for Hayes with 14:34 left in the first half. NJIT then surged on top with a 9-0 run, capped by a three for Arjun Ohri that staked the Highlanders to their first lead of the night, 15-13, at 10:12. Neither team led by more than four points for the rest of the opening half.
 
The first-half scoring leaders were NJIT's Wilkerson, with 11 points, and Melquan Bolding, with seven points for Fairleigh Dickinson. Bolding, who came into the game averaging a team-best 15 points per game, did not score in the second half, taking just two shots after the break and finishing the game 2-for-8 from the field in 31 minutes. His seven points vs. NJIT were one above his FDU low, when he scored six against UAlbany.
 
Both teams shot under 40 percent from the floor on the night, but NJIT had a 21-13 advantage in points from the foul line and 14 offensive rebounds helped the Highlanders to a 14-8 lead in second-chance points.
 
The ability to take control in the second half of their 11th game of the season was encouraging for the Highlanders in the wake of their difficulties finishing in the first 10 games. They had significant second-half leads against both Manhattan and Rutgers and lost both games by double-figure final scores and they were heavily outscored in the second half by their two other Big East opponents, now-12th ranked Georgetown and Seton Hall.
 
Two keys in NJIT's strong second half Wednesday were its defense and its ball security. FDU shot barely 30 percent (30.8 on 8-for-26) from the field in the second half after going 10-for-21 (47.6 percent) in the opening half. The Knights also had two turnovers on shot-clock violations, as the Highlanders clamped down on the 'D'. And NJIT had just five turnovers of its own over the decisive final 20 minutes.
 
The 13-point final margin of victory was the most in a non-conference game for NJIT against a Division I opponent in the Highlanders' Division I era (since 2006-07).
 
They competed as a Division I Independent for the first three years. During that time, when all games were “non-conference”, NJIT's biggest winning margin was 11, done against Rider (63-52) on November 14, 2006, in the first Division I home game for the Highlanders.
 
Beginning in 2009-10, NJIT began play in the Great West Conference and also has played against some non-Division I opponents, creating fewer non-conference opportunities.
 
The Highlanders have won by as 52 points against a non-DI foe since 2009-10 and they have eight double-figure wins in their 24 Great West Conference games to date, topped by a 32-point margin in a 78-46 win over Chicago State in the 2010-11 regular season finale on March 5.
 
NJIT's 65-56 win at Wagner on December 28, 2009, had been the widest winning margin in a non-conference Division I game since the start of the 2009-10 season.
 
Next up is a Friday night trip to Brooklyn to face defending Northeast Conference champion and 2011 NCAA Tournament participant Long Island University in a 7 pm start. Last year, on December 28 in Newark, LIU won the first Division I men's basketball game between the schools, 89-82.