Box score

NEWARK, NJ—Chris Flores posted game-high totals of 23 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, and NJIT shot 13-for-22 on 3-pointers Monday night, as the Highlanders topped visiting Lafayette, 78-58, in non-conference men's basketball in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Flores, a junior guard, shot 5-for-6 on 3-pointers, and senior Arjun Ohri shot 5-for-7 from beyond the arc in generating a career-high 19 points off the NJIT bench, while Isaiah Wilkerson added 17 points for the victorious Highlanders (6-7).
 
For Flores, the 23 points were a season high, matching the most by a Highlander this year (Wilkerson also scored 23 in the season opener at Manhattan.
 
The 11 boards were new personal high for Flores, topping the 10 he got at Saint Peter's as a freshman in December 2009. With Flores leading the way, the Highlanders dominated the Leopards on the boards, 45-31.
 
His six assists matched his personal high, which he had reached three times before. He shared the team assists lead against Lafayette with classmate PJ Miller, who also matched his season rebounding high, with six.
 
Ohri, who started the first seven games, has come off the bench in the last six. He started the season strong, but slumped a bit, going three games without scoring a point at one stretch and not topping six in any of his first five games as a reserve.
 
However, Ohri blew up for 16 points, all in the second half, coming off the bench in the last game at LIU, matching his two-year NJIT career high. Then he set a new personal standard with 19 points the next time out on Monday. Ohri also has five assists without a turnover in a combined 42 minutes the last two games. He is 9-for-13 from distance the last two games.
 
Wilkerson, announced as Great West Conference Player of the Week during pregame warmups for his play in the previous two contests, continued his stellar season year against Lafayette, with 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Monday's 17 points pushed the senior's career total to 1,261 and moved him past  Reggie James (1,250 points from 1985-89) into 10th on the all-time NJIT list.
 
Wilkerson's 474 career rebounds are 18 shy of his former teammate, Jheryl Wilson, whose 492 rebounds from 2007-11 are the most for a career in NJJT's Division I era, which began in 2006-07.
 
In gaining its first win over Lafayette in the five-game all-time men's basketball series between the schools, NJIT outdid the Leopards in areas where Lafayette is usually strongest.
 
Under 17th-year head coach Fran O'Hanlon, who has led Lafayette to the last two Patriot League championship games, the Leopards have been noted for their outstanding passing. It was evident tonight, with 10 assists on 20 baskets and just 10 turnovers, but the Highlanders did them better, passing for 20 assists on 26 baskets, with 12 turnovers.
 
 Lafayette often features outstanding 3-point shooting and this year is no exception, as the Leopards came in ranked fourth nationally, with an average of 9.8 3-point baskets per game. And they were shooting just under 40 percent on threes, despite all their attempts (319 tries in 13 previous games).
 
However, NJIT is 21st nationally on defense against threes, holding opponents to 27.6 percent shooting from downtown. On this night, Lafayette was held to half its normal percentage, making just 20 percent of its 3-points attempts (6-for-30).
 
On the other end, the Highlanders, who make a respectable seven threes per game, nearly doubled that, connecting on a season-high 13 threes and setting a new school Division I record for 3-point accuracy, hitting 59.1 percent of their 22 tries, just edging out the 58.8 percent they shot in making 10-of-17 in a 92-83 loss to Lehigh last January 4.
 
Lafayette, which lost for the fourth time in its five games since a signature win at Penn State on December 7, dropped to 5-9 overall.
 
Freshman guard Seth Hinrichs led Lafayette in scoring, with 14 points and in rebounds, with five and senior Ryan Willen added 11 points for the visitors.
 
Hinrichs, the 6-foot-7 four-time Patriot League Rookie of the Week, was the only Leopard to make more than one three against the Highlanders and he was 2-for-6.
 
Senior Jim Mower, who came in averaging a team-leading 16.8 ppg and had made 33 threes in 13 games (including 10-for-13 in a win on November 22 against Fairleigh Dickinson) managed nine points against NJIT and five came at the foul line, as he missed all four of his 3-point tries.
 
Although the game ended with a 20-point winning margin for the Highlanders, their most ever against a Division I opponent in a non-conference game, it was a closely-contested possession game for most of the first half. But eventually, the disparity in 3-point accuracy and in team rebounding proved too much for the Leopards.
 
There were eight ties in the opening period, the last at the 4:08 mark, when Lafayette's Willen hit a jump shot to knot the score at 25. NJIT finished off the half with nine unanswered points, all on threes, with Ohri making two and Flores capping the run for a 34-25 halftime lead.
 
The Highlanders continued to pull away after halftime, scoring the first five points of the half, before the Leopards answered with five points, capped by Mower's conventional 3-point play that cut the deficit back to 39-30 with 17:46 left.
 
Flores answered 26 seconds later with the first three of his 15 second-half points and NJIT led by at least 10 the rest of the way. The biggest lead for the Highlanders was 27, at 78-51 on a Flores layup with 1:36 remaining.
 
After a close rebounding exchange in the first half (20-17, NJIT), the Highlanders dominated the second-half rebounding, 25-14.
 
And the 3-point disparity in the opening half (NJIT shot 7-12 to 4-15 for Lafayette) grew wider after the break, as the Highlanders connected on 6-of-10 tries, while the Leopards slid to 2-for-15.
 
The new program Division I record for largest winning margin of 20 against Lafayette supplanted a record that stood for all of one game and five days. The old mark was 13 in a 66-53 win over Fairleigh Dickinson in NJIT's last previous home game on December 28.
 
Before that, the record had been 11 points, set in just the second game overall and first at home in the Division I era, when NJIT topped Rider, 63-52, on November 14, 2006.
 
NJIT competed as a Division I Independent for the first three years, meaning all games were “non-conference”. Beginning in 2009-10, NJIT began play in the Great West Conference and also has played against some non-Division I opponents. As a result, the non-conference Division I opportunities have been reduced since 2009-10, which also happens to coincide with an upswing in the competitiveness of the Highlanders.
 
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. But had not posted a double-digit win against a non-conference DI opponent until last week vs. FDU.
 
Up next for NJIT is a two-game road trip that will see the Highlanders visit the two Division I Independents on their schedule.
 
They will bus to Farmville, VA, for a 2 pm game on Saturday at Longwood and then head to California for a first-ever contest with CSU Bakersfield on January 10. Longwood, which owns a 6-3 record all-time vs. NJIT (1-1 last season), will visit Army on Tuesday before hosting the Highlanders on the weekend.