Box Score
 
NEWARK, NJ—NJIT got the better of visiting Longwood for large portions of each half Sunday afternoon. But the final three minutes of each period were another story entirely, as Longwood scored the last 16 points of the first half to tie the score by halftime and then outscored the home team 6-3 in the last minute to defeat the Highlanders, 69-66, in non-conference women's basketball.
 
NJIT (11-16) fell despite 15 points and a record-setting blocked shots performance from its freshman center Nicole Maticka.
 
The 6-foot-3 native of Slovakia, matched her career scoring high (done twice before) and also rewrote the NJIT record book with nine blocked shots against Longwood, breaking her own record of eight, done against Fairleigh Dickinson on November 16, 2011.
 
Maticka's nine blocks in a game ties for seventh-highest this season nationally for Division I, behind 12 blocks for Elizabeth Williams of Duke against Wake Forest in January. The nine blocks for Maticka on Sunday matches the high this season for the greatest shot blocker in the history of women's basketball, Baylor junior Brittney Griner, who swatted nine against UConn in December.
 
Maticka also raised her overall school-record season blocked shots total to 77, which also makes her the career leader for the Division I era (since 2006-07) with slightly less than one season complete.
 
Denisa Domiterova, also a freshman from Slovakia, paced the Highlander scorers with 18 points, all of which came on 6-for-9 shooting on 3-pointers.
 
Senior Brittanni Billups game-high 25 points and nine rebounds, led Longwood (7-22), supported by Chelsea Coward (18 points) and Crystal Smith (11).
 
In the first half, the Highlanders first took their biggest lead of the day, 16 points, at 28-12 on a 3-point basket with 6:12 left in the first half by Domiterova, whose 6-for-9 paced NJIT to a 10-for-20 day from beyond the arc.
 
NJIT would have two more 16-point leads in the half, the last at 32-16 with 3:53 lefton a jumper in the lane by Kimberly Dweck.
 
Longwood then rallied for 16 unanswered points over the last 3:38 to tie the score at 32 heading into halftime. Coward, a junior forward, started the rally with a 3-pointer 15 seconds after the Dweck bucket and accounted for eight points in the run, including the tying basket 23 seconds before halftime.
 
Billups added four of her six first-half points in the closing rally ahead of the intermission. Billups, who did not play when Longwood defeated the Highlanders 72-71 at home in Virginia on January 14, then scored 19 of her team's 37 points in the decisive second half Sunday. The 25 points matched a career high for the senior Billups.
 
The second half was close throughout, with seven ties, but NJIT used a 5-0 run to take its biggest lead of the period, 55-49, on a Maticka jump shot with 6:38 left.
 
Trailing by six after Maticka's jumper, Longwood erased the entire NJIT lead in 105 seconds, as Coward scored a layup with 6:18 left and hit two free throws with 5:44 left before Billups scored a layup for the seventh tie of the day, 55-55, at the 4:47 mark.
 
Free throws would prove crucial in the second half, as Longwood connected on 16 of 18 tries over the final 20 minutes, including 6-for-6 in the final 42.9 seconds after the game had been tied for the final time, 63-63, 15 seconds earlier.
 
After the 55-55 tie at the 4:57 mark, the teams traded scores to 59-59, before Billups sunk a pair of foul shots at 2:33 and two more at 1:42 for a 63-59 Longwood lead.
 
The Highlanders had one more run left, as Rayven Johnson hit a jump shot, her third in four shots over a stretch of 2:15, bringing NJIT back within two, 63-61, at 1:21.
 
Maticka stole the ball from Billups the next time down the floor and NJIT's freshman point guard Alyssa Albanese was fouled with 58.1 seconds on the clock. Albanese, facing a pressure one-and-one spot, had missed her previous three foul shots, including the front end of a one-and-one opportunity, calmly sank the big free throws, tying the score at 63-63.
 
The last minute belonged to the Lancers, however, as Billups, fouled on the other end, made both free throws for a 65-63 lead with 42.9 seconds left.
 
NJIT's Johnson, who had made three of her previous four shots on jumpers off the dribble, got a similar chance for a try from just inside the foul line, but the shot wouldn't drop and Billups cleared the boards for Longwood.
 
Longwood's Smith was fouled in the backcourt and canned both free throws, making it a two-possession game in favor of the Lancers with 18.1 seconds left.
 
Down four, NJIT got a right corner 3-point try by Maticka, but it rimmed out, Longwood got the rebound and Smith canned two more foul shots for a 69-63 advantage with 7.4 seconds left.  Maticka then hit a triple for the Highlanders ahead of the final buzzer.
 
NJIT's two games against Longwood have been oddities in a season filled with close results. The Highlanders have had nine games decided either in overtime or by four points, or less, in regulation. Two of those games have been against Longwood. In the seven close games against other teams, the Highlanders are 7-0. The only two close losses all season came against Longwood, which is 5-22 in its other 27 games.
 
The Highlanders will close out the regular season with a Great West Conference home game against Chicago State on Saturday, March 3, at 2 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. That game is part of the only home doubleheader of the season, with a men's game between NJIT and Chicago State following at approximately 4 pm.
 
In this season's first women's game between the schools, Chicago State was an 86-70 winner in the Windy City on February 4.