Box score

EDINBURG, TX--Jheryl Wilson's tip-in beat the first overtime buzzer and visiting NJIT beat Texas-Pan American, 65-63, Saturday night for the Highlanders' sixth straight win, raising NJIT's Great West Conference record to 7-1.

 

Saturday's win for the Highlanders kept them on pace with Utah Valley, which raised its GWC record to 9-1 on a 67-64 home win over North Dakota, also on Saturday night. North Dakota, now 5-3 in conference, is in third place behind the second-place Highlanders.

 

NJIT, which, before this season, had not won more than two straight games since beginning Division I competition in 2006-07, had an earlier three-game winning streak before this latest six-game surge and is 11-2 since January 8.

 

The latest win also raises NJIT's overall record to 13-12, putting the Highlanders above .500 in a season for the first time since the earliest days of the program's Division I era.

 

Back in November 2006, NJIT won its first two Division I games, defeating Manhattan and Rider. But then, on November 17, the Highlanders tasted defeat at Columbia (coincidentally, current NJIT head coach Jim Engles was Columbia's lead assistant coach).

 

The next night, in the second round of Columbia's tournament, Saint Peter's beat the Highlanders, dropping NJIT's record to 2-2.

Those two losses began a 13-game slide and NJIT never again even saw .500 again until it began 2009-10 under Engles at 2-2. The Highlanders opened this season, the third for Engles, at 1-1, but did not cross the .500 barrier from mid-November 2006 until now.

 

NJIT, which shot a shade under 40 percent from the floor (23-59) and a bumpy 15-for-27 from the foul line at Texas-Pan Am, had two double-figure scorers in pulling out the win in a game it trailed by 15 points early in the second half.

 

Isaiah Wilkerson registered his team-leading fifth double-double of the season for the Highlanders, with game-high totals of 18 points and 11 rebounds.

 

With Wilkerson and Chris Flores, who had scored 28 in Thursday's win at Houston Baptist, limited by early foul trouble, junior Arjun Ohri came up big for NJIT. Coming off the bench, he fired in 11 points in 15 minutes.
 
Ohri, the sharpshooting transfer playing his first season with the Highlanders, shot 3-for-6 on 3-pointers and made both of his foul shots at UTPA. Ohri is a team-best 44 percent on the season from distance (18-41). 

 

Jheryl Wilson, the ninth-leading career scorer in NJIT program history (1,295 points), was quiet for most of the Texas trip, with 3 points at Houston Baptist on Thursday and 4 points in regulation at UTPA.

 

But the team's only senior came up big in the last 1:37 of overtime, hitting a jump shot to give the Highlanders a 63-62 lead. And then, after Brandon Provost tied the score for the Broncs on the second of two free throws with 1:20 left, Wilson scored the game-winner at the buzzer.

 

The deciding play began with NJIT's Wilkerson missing a jump shot from the right baseline. Wilson, coming from the left side, went up and in one motion, tipped the missed shot in for the winning score as the final buzzer sounded.

 

NJIT, which went without playing an overtime game since losing one to Navy on January 2, 2007, began its current winning streak with a 64-62 overtime win at Fairleigh Dickinson on February 1.

 

Sandwiched between the overtime wins at FDU and UTPA, the Highlanders also beat Longwood, 65-64, on a basket with 1.2 seconds left in regulation. And they scored the last 9 points of the game to beat South Dakota by 8 and they began the Texas trip at Houston Baptist by finishing 14-3 over the final 3:14, to win by 6.

 

The wins at Houston Baptist and at Texas-Pan American were the first for NJIT in the Lone Star State as a Division I program. NJIT had lost twice before at HBU and four times before at UTPA.

 

Texas-Pan American (4-23, 1-9 Great West) had three double-figure scorers, led by 13 for Provost, the sophomore transfer who previously played at the Air Force Academy. Senior Matt Mierczycki had 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Broncs and sophomore Ruben Cabrera chipped in 10 points.

 

NJIT outrebounded the home team, 51-48, as Kherel Silcott backed up Wilkerson's 11 rebounds with 7 of his own in 20 minutes off the bench. On the other side, Jared Maree had 7 rebounds, 8 points, and shared game assists honors with his teammate, Mierczycki, as each man had handed out four.

 

The Highlanders' streak and all of the other statistical notes and superlatives that go with it was very much in jeopardy following the first half, after which Texas-Pan American held a seemingly solid 33-23 lead.

 

With many of its key players struggling to find their offensive rhythm and/or in foul trouble, NJIT trailed by 10 at the half and was shooting just 8-for-26 from the floor, 1-9 on threes, and a less-than-stellar 6-for-13 at the foul stripe, with 10 turnovers thrown into the mix.

 

Texas-Pan American, meanwhile, was 13-28 from the floor, 4-10 on threes, and 3-5 at the line, with 8 turnovers.

 

NJIT would eventually turn the game around and win the second half by 10 points, but things actually got worse for the Highlanders coming out of the locker room.

 

The Broncs sandwiched seven points around a PJ Miller bucket for the Highlanders and when Cabrera made a layup at the 17:30 mark, UTPA led by 15, 40-25.

 

But Ohri and Lamar Kearse nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to keep NJIT from falling farther behind before the Broncs got three foul shots to go back up by 12, 43-31.

 

Ohri answered with another three at 11:25, triggering an 11-3 NJIT spurt the closed the gap to 46-42 on Wilkerson's layup with 8:38 left.

 

The Highlanders continued their run and finally took the lead, 49-48, on another Wilkerson layup with 6:15 left. From the time it fell behind by 15 with 17:30 left, NJIT used a 24-8 push in 11:15 to claim its first lead since scoring the game's first basket.

 

Once it went ahead at 49-48, NJIT did not trail in regulation and appeared poised to win in the normal 40 minutes.

 

Ahead by four, 56-52, after a Ryan Regis layup at the end of a press break with 39 seconds left in regulation, the Highlanders conceded a point on the next possession.

 

After an NJIT turnover, Provost drove for a basket with 8 seconds left and the Broncs, down one, fouled Regis when he took the ensuing inbounds pass. The Highlander junior missed the first try, but made the second for a two-point lead.

 

With no timeouts left, the Broncs pushed the ball ahead and appeared to lose when Julius Hearn's off-balance shot from near the 3-point arc missed its mark as the buzzer sounded.

 

However, NJIT's Wilson was called for his fourth foul trying to get rebounding position against Texas-Pan Am's Mierczyki, who made both foul shots with four-tenths of a second showing to force overtime.

 

UTPA's Aaron Urbanus opened overtime with a made jump shot, but Wilkerson tied the score with two free throws on the next possession and Chris Flores made a layup for a 61-59 NJIT lead at 2:28.

 

However, Maree, assisted by Urbanus, the crafty little sophomore guard, put the Broncs ahead for what would be the last time, 62-61, on a three with 2:09 left.

 

Wilson regained the upper hand for NJIT, 63-62, with a foul line jump at 1:37. And Provost, fouled hard, knotted the score at 63 by making the second of two free throws with 1:20 left, before Wilson's game-winning tip-in beat the buzzer.

 

Texas-Pan American, which had shot well in all areas in building its 33-23 halftime lead, made just 7 second-half field goal (7-29) and was 1-for-10 from behind the arc in the second half, plus 9-for-16 at the foul line, when 10-for-16, nothing special, would have meant a win.

 

NJIT, which overcame its poor first-half shooting to shoot 50 percent (12-24) from the floor and from distance (3-6), respectively, in the second half, made just two of its first eight shots in overtime, but Wilson's make on the ninth try guaranteed a happy Saturday night in Texas and trip back to Newark on Sunday for the Highlanders.

 

The Highlanders, who keep finding new challenges ahead each time they reach a new level of success, have another demanding weekend trip when they travel to the Dakotas.

 

They will visit defending Great West Conference champion South Dakota on Thursday for an 8 pm (CST) game. After that, they'll visit North Dakota, the only GWC team with a win this season over Utah Valley, for a 1 pm (CST) contest on Saturday in Grand Forks.