Box Score
NEWARK, NJ—Jheryl Wilson, NJIT's only senior, celebrated his final career home appearance with a game-high 19 points and the Highlanders fired in 16 3-point baskets in a 78-46 win over visiting Chicago State Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale for both teams.
Isaiah Wilkerson added 17 points in 17 minutes for the Highlanders, who raised their overall record to 15-14 and finished 9-3 in the Great West Conference, good for sole possession of second place.
Wilkerson (5-for-7), Wilson (4-for-6) and Arjun Ohri (4-for-7 and 12 points) were the 3-point leaders for the Highlanders, who set a new school Division I record with the 16 long-distance baskets. They were 16-for-32 from downtown, breaking the old Division I mark of 13, which came one day shy of a year ago on March 6, 2010 at Chicago State.
The overall school record for threes in a game remains 22, which was done in NJIT's Division III era on January 17, 1990 vs. Stevens. The most 3-pointers this season for one Division I team against another Division I team is 20 by Notre Dame vs. Villanova on February 28.
NJIT which had 25 assists on 29 field goals also set a new school Division I assists record. The Highlanders also had 10 blocked shots led by a career-high five for Ryan Regis.
Chicago State (6-25 overall, 3-9 Great West Conference) got 15 points from senior center Carl Montgomery and 11 points and a game-high 8 rebounds from senior forward Antonio Lofton. The Cougars, who shot 27 percent from the field (14-52) and were outrebounded, 45-32, have lost eight games in a row.
The Highlanders, who never trailed the game played in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center, hit two 3-pointers on the way to an 8-2 lead in the first 2:20 and they stretched their first-half lead to as many as 24 points before claiming a 43-21 halftime lead, paced by 14 points from Wilkerson.
As with the game total that saw NJIT make more 3-pointers (16) than Chicago State made total field goals (14), the Highlanders connected on nine 3-pointers in the opening half, while the Cougars made eight total field goals.
Chicago State scored the first point of the second half on a free throw by Lofton with 17:44 left, but NJIT continued to dominate and led by as many as 37 points, 78-41, when Wilson, playing his final career home game, made a 3-point shot with 3:56 remaining.
Wilson, who was honored in pre-game ceremonies, made the 100th start of his four-year career at NJIT. He ranks ninth on the career scoring list, with 1,341 points, four behind Andrew South, who netted 1,345 points between 1993 and 1995.
Wilson, who is a fine rebounder for a guard, pulled down six on Saturday, raising his career total in that category to 484, which makes him the program's leader for the Division I era (since 2006-07). Dan Stonkus who graduated last year, had 482 rebounds between 2006 and 2010.
Wilson's six boards on Saturday were the most for an individual Highlander, but 13 of the 14 men who appeared for NJIT got at least one rebound, as they enjoyed the 45-32 team lead over the Cougars.
Saturday's win was the 10th in 15 home games this season for NJIT, which had won seven straight in the Fleisher Athletic Center until Utah Valley came in and won on Thursday night.
The 15 overall wins, easily the highest total in NJIT's five seasons of Division I competition, is the most for the Highlanders since 2002-03, when they finished 18-11 playing at the Division II level. That was also their last winning record, a feat the current NJIT team can achieve if it wins its opening game in the Great West Conference Tournament, which begins for the men's teams on Thursday in Orem, Utah, at Utah Valley University.
Utah Valley, which won the GWC regular season title with an 11-1 record, has a first-round bye in the tournament. NJIT, as the second seed, will face the seventh-seeded team in Thursday's first round. The identity of the first-round opponent will not be known until the completion of conference play later on Saturday.
Chicago State is 3-9, while Houston Baptist and Texas-Pan American are both 2-9 with games scheduled for Saturday night. HBU will host South Dakota at 7:35 PM CST and UTPA will host North Dakota five minutes earlier.
Artificial tiebreakers, such as head-to-head results, will be used to create the tournament seeds in the event of identical won-lost records.
NJIT swept the home-and-home regular season series from all three of its potential first-round opponents.
