Box Score
VERMILLION, SD – Junior guard Isaiah Wilkerson scored 18 points, including the 1,000th of his career, but the NJIT men's basketball team saw its six-game winning streak end at the hands of South Dakota, falling by a final score of 99-84 at the DakotaDome Thursday night.
The loss evened the Highlanders' overall record at 13-13 and dropped them to 7-2 in the Great West Conference. The Coyotes improved to 14-13 overall and 5-4 in the Great West. The 99-point total was the most surrendered in a game by the Highlanders this season.
After the two teams entered halftime deadlocked at 40-40, South Dakota took control of the game in the first 1:44 of the second half, scoring six straight points to take the lead for good. NJIT never had a lead in the contest.
Louie Krogman gave South Dakota a 42-40 lead with a jumper and that was followed by consecutive jumpers from Charlie Westrbook and Trevor Gruis, giving the Coyotes a 46-40 lead.
It started a 20-5 run that enabled South Dakota to pull away from the Highlanders, giving South Dakota a 60-45 lead with 14:29 remaining.
The highlight of the game for NJIT came when Wilkerson scored on a layup with 8:16 remaining, giving the junior from Staten Island 1,000 career points, becoming the 24th player in the school's history to reach the historic milestone. Current teammate Jheryl Wilson is also a member of the Highlanders' 1,000-point club. Wilson reached the milestone earlier in the season.
NJIT did close the gap to 62-54 on a jumper from sophomore guard PJ Miller, but Krogman countered with a 3-point field goal and the lead went back to double figures for the remainder of the game.
South Dakota had a solid balanced scoring attack as Gruis, Krogman and Westbrook all scoring 19 each for the winners, who connected on 33-of-39 from the free throw line (84 percent) and 30-of-62 from the floor (48.4 percent). Westbrook also grabbed nine rebounds in the victory.
NJIT received a solid performance from sophomore center Sean McCarthy, who scored a career-best 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds off the bench. McCarthy connected on his first seven shots from the floor. His previous career best was 10 points in a game last season as a freshman.
Lamar Kearse finished with 18 points and Miller had 13 points for the Highlanders, who will now face North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. EST.
