Box score

HACKENSACK, NJ—The outcome was in question until a missed shot at the buzzer, but visiting NJIT came out on top, winning its first men's basketball overtime game in more than four years, 64-62, at Fairleigh Dickinson Tuesday night.

 

In a game filled with first-time and/or rare accomplishments on a team and individual level for the Highlanders, they prevailed for their sixth win in the last eight games, upping their overall record to 8-12.

 

FDU, 4-16, has lost five straight and 14 of the last 15 after splitting its first six games. Tuesday night's game was the second overtime loss for the Knights in their current five-game losing streak and their third OT loss in the last 15 contests.

 

NJIT, which hadn't won on the road from late December 2009 until prevailing recently at Chicago State on January 22 (86-83), now has two wins in its last three away games.

 

The Highlanders had three double-figure scorers, led by senior Jheryl Wilson, with 19 points. Wilson, who raised his career scoring total to 1,241 points, moved up two spots to 10th on NJIT's career list (passed Bob Zanzalari, 1,224 points from 1978-82; and, Ken Chance, 1,231 points from 1982-86).

 

Wilson, who made four 3-pointers in the opening five minutes Tuesday, scored 16 first-half points and then added one in the second half and two in overtime, as NJIT outscored the home team, 8-6, in the extra five-minute period.

 

Junior Isaiah Wilkerson had his fourth double-double of the season, finishing with 15 points and tying his career high with 13 rebounds (also had 13 rebounds against Wagner in late November 2009).

 

Sophomore Chris Flores scored 16 for the Highlanders and pulled down a career-best 9 rebounds, helping NJIT to win the battle on the boards against the taller Knights, 54-45.

 

The 54 rebounds in NJIT's first overtime game in more than four years set a new school Division I record, surpassing the 49 for the Highlanders last February 25 against South Dakota (the last overtime game for NJIT was a 52-50 loss to Navy in January 2007).

 

Another noteworthy statistic for the Highlanders was an NJIT Division I-record 9 blocked shots for sophomore center Sean McCarthy, who played 20 minutes off the bench (old record was 5, Dan Stonkus vs. Longwood in January 2007). McCarthy, who played a season-high 20 minutes on Tuesday, led NJIT to a team Division I-record 12 blocks (old record was 9 vs. Bryant in February 2009).

 

McCarthy's effort was especially important because it helped foil FDU's apparent game plan of trying to exploit its height advantage among the starters inside by getting the ball into the post. Six-foot-8 senior forward Kamil Svrdlik (12.7 points per game) shot 3-for-7 and 6-foot-8 senior center John Galvin, coming off of a 20-point, 17-rebound effort in his last game against St. Francis (NY), shot 1-for-9 against NJIT.

 

Fairleigh Dickinson lost despite a game-high and personal career-high 25 points off the bench for senior guard Terence Grier, who averages better than 11 points and previously had two 23-point games. The senior missed out on a chance to be the hero of the night when his forced 25-foot try from straight on missed the mark at the final buzzer.

 

Senior point guard Mike Scott, who came in averaging nearly 16 points and netted 24 in the previous contest against St. Francis (NY), finished with 13 points for FDU against the Highlanders and Svrdlik added 10 points.

 

Tuesday's result was the kind that finds the winners taking a deep breath and exhaling at the final buzzer, while the losing side is likely to find difficulty sleeping later that night.

 

Both teams had ample chances to win down the stretch in regulation and in overtime. NJIT had two shots and missed on the final possession of regulation and FDU, down two, failed on Grier's deep 3-point try on the final possession of the game in overtime.

 

The Highlanders, who scored the game's first six points on a pair of treys for Wilson, were either ahead or tied the entire night, except for a 1:21 window midway through the first half.

 

The Knights took their first lead, 13-12 on Scott's trey at the 11:21 mark of the first half, but NJIT soon tied the score at 15 when Wilkerson completed a conventional 3-point play with a layup and free throw at 10:00 and NJIT would not trail again.

 

Lamar Kearse drained a 3-pointer on the next NJIT possession and the Highlanders pushed their advantage to 12 points on Kearse's layup that made it 31-19 with 2:27 left in the first half.

 

NJIT finished the first half on top, 35-26, paced by Wilson's 16 points. On the other side, Grier, who was 6-for-9 from the field with a combination of fast-break runouts and some acrobatic driving layups, had 14 points, including all 11 of his team's tallies from 10:18 to 1:16.

 

Wilkerson's layup eight seconds into the second half put the Highlanders ahead by 11, but NJIT could never deliver the knockout blow against the Knights.

Down 11, Fairleigh Dickinson answered with an 11-1 run capped by a Scott 3-pointer that pulled the Knights to within a point, 38-37, with 16:36 left in regulation.

 

The Highlanders still had a slender one-point advantage when Wilkerson's three at 14:46 ignited a 9-0 run in the next 1:22.

 

NJIT got its lead back to 11, 52-41, on a pair of Sammy Schickel free throws with 10:42 remaining in regulation and it appeared the Highlanders were in line for a relatively comfortable road win.

 

They weren't. Instead, NJIT was in for a nail-biting struggle, managing just four more points over the remaining 10:42 of regulation—zero in the last 6:46. After scoring their 56th point, the Highlanders were 0-for-6 from the field down the stretch.

 

FDU, which trailed 56-49 when the Highlanders stopped scoring, staggered to seven points the rest of the way, shooting 1-for-12 from the field and 5-for-8 at the foul line in tying the score.

 

The shooting totals for the second half were not pretty for either team. NJIT was 7-for-30 (23 percent) from the field, while FDU wasn't much better at 9-for-30 (30 percent).

 

The Knights, who would shoot 1-for-7 in the field in overtime, were 21-for-70 (30 percent) in the game for the lowest shooting percentage this season by an NJIT opponent.

 

NJIT which had the last possession of regulation, called timeout with 10 ticks remaining and got a 3-point try out of the left corner by Kearse that rolled off the rim to Wilkerson, whose try for a putback fell off as the buzzer sounded.

 

Wilkerson, who is never shortchanged when it comes to perseverence, finally ended NJIT's drought with the first basket of overtime on a jump shot that gave the Highlanders their first points in more than eight minutes (last 6:46 of regulation and first 1:45 of overtime).

 

The teams traded points for two more ties before Wilson, who had been limited to one point since pouring in 16 in the first half, drilled a jump shot to put NJIT on top to stay, 62-60, with 1:39 left.

 

FDU's Grier, who had the 11-point skein in the first half, had a similar stretch in the second half, collecting all 10 of the Knights' points from 12:39 to 7:23 in the second half (14 of FDU's 16 from 17:14 to 7:23).

 

However, Grier, who was fouled 17 seconds after Wilson's go-ahead jumper for NJIT, missed both free throws with a chance to tie. He finished the game 5-for-10 at the line, which was actually better than his season percentage (26-60; .433 coming in).

 

Flores later canned the second of two free throws for the Highlanders, making it 63-60 with 30 seconds left, but FDU's Scott sunk two foul shots with 10 seconds remaining, trimming NJIT's lead back to a lone point.

 

The Knights instantly fouled Kearse in the backcourt and the freshman hit the first of two with nine seconds left, putting the Highlanders ahead, 62-60.

 

Briahn Smith rebounded the missed second free throw and the Knights got the ball to Grier, who, well-guarded by NJIT's Kearse, leaned forward and missed from 25 feet as the buzzer sounded.

 

Having secured their first Division I non-conference win of 2010-11 by beating Fairleigh Dickinson, the Highlanders will wrap up non-league play on Saturday at 2 pm, when they host Longwood in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center on Alumni Day.

 

NJIT and Longwood played on January 18 in Farmville, VA, and the Lancers defeated the Highlanders, 88-81.