Box score

NEWARK, NJ—Seniors Chris Flores (28 points) and Ryan Woods (23 points) matched their career scoring highs, leading NJIT to an 83-78 win over visiting Chicago State in the first triple-overtime game for the Highlanders since they began Division I competition in the 2006-07 season.
 
Flores scored 12 of his points in the 15 minutes of added time, while Woods scored eight, including a pair of three-pointers sandwiched around an Odera Nweke driving layup from the right baseline that transformed a 69-67 deficit into a 75-69 lead after the second Woods triple with 2:15 remaining in the third overtime.
 
NJIT, which had only gone to double overtime once before in its Division I era (a 99-97 home loss vs. Utah Valley last February 9), is now 2-0 in the Great West Conference and 8-8 overall. Chicago State, which has played the 25th most-difficult schedule in the country, according to the authoritative Sagarin Ratings, drops to a deceptive 4-14 overall and after falling in its Great West opener.
 
The 28 points for Flores ties his own career scoring high, which is also the most for an NJIT player in the Division I era. Flores, has reached 28 points three different times, including in the 2012-13 season opener at Providence. Jheryl Wilson (Class of '11) also scored 28 points for the Highlanders in February 2011 vs. South Dakota.

Woods, who is in his second season with NJIT after starring for two years at Division II Pace, previously scored 23 points against North Carolina A&T in December this season. He took all of his shots on Saturday from the field from 3-point distance, making 6-of-12, while also making all five of his free throws.

The six treys tied Woods' NJIT career high and also matched the program record of six, which has been done five other times, most recently by Woods against A&T.

Woods has connected on 47 shots this season from beyond the arc and he is 42-for-45 (.933 from the foul line). His 47 triples already rank in the program's top seven totals in the Division I era with a dozen regular season games left, plus the GWC tournament.
 
Fellow senior PJ Miller, who had established a personal scoring high with 14 points in last week's win over defending GWC regular season champion Utah Valley, matched that total against Chicago State on Saturday and he also dished out a career-high nine assists, which also represents a new Division I high for the Highlanders. Miller and Nweke were the team leaders with three steals apiece on Saturday.
 
Sophomore Daquan Holiday continued to emerge as a force for the Highlanders, pulling down a program Division I-record 17 rebounds and blocking seven shots (second in the DI era only to Sean McCarthy's nine blocks at Fairleigh Dickinson in February 2011). The old Division I rebounding record was 16, set by Nesho Milosevic at Maine on December 1, 2007.
 
Holiday, who has improved at an impressive rate since arriving on campus in 2011, came off the bench in all 13 of his appearances last season as a freshman and in his first 11 games this season. He has started the last five, including a 14-rebound effort last week at Utah Valley, followed by the 17 boards and seven blocks on Saturday against Chicago State.
 
The visiting Cougars got a double-double from Matt Ross, who finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Swingman Quinton Pippen added 18 points, six rebounds, and five assists for the visitors, while Jamere Dismukes finished with a team-leading seven assists and Nate Duhon came off the bench for a game-high four steals. All four of Saturday's stats leaders for the Cougars are junior college transfers playing their first seasons for CSU.
 
NJIT, which never trailed until the closing minutes of regulation, built a 33-24 lead by halftime, topped by 12 points for Woods and 11 for Flores. The Highlanders connected on half of their shots overall (11-22), as well as from 3-point range (4-7), while holding Chicago State to 23 percent from the floor (8-35), including 3-for-14 on threes in the opening 20 minutes.
 
The Highlanders, who had led by as many as 11 points in the first half, matched that bulge early in the second half on a Woods triple that made it 41-30 at the 16:50 mark. Despite shooting that would end up 4-for-22 (18 percent) over the second 20 minutes, NJIT still led nine, 47-38, on Miller's driving layup at 11:16.
 
However, the Highlanders went scoreless for nearly six minutes after that and the Cougars whittled their deficit down to two, 47-45, on Clarke Rosenberg's tip-in with 8:58 left in the half.
 
The score stayed there until Miller, who would finish 6-for-6 at the foul line, drained a pair to end his team's drought and give NJIT a 49-45 advantage with 5:33 on the second-half clock.
 
However, the Highlanders could not expand their lead above four and when Pippen hit one of his four 3-pointers in the game, Chicago State took its first lead of the day, 52-51, with 2:40 left in the second half. Miller put NJIT back on top with a pair of foul shots, but Rosenberg made the second of two free throws, knotting the score at 53-53 with 48 seconds left. The Highlanders got off three more shots and Chicago State's Ross got the final shot of the period, but it ended at 53-53.
 
Each team scored six points in the first overtime, as neither side led by more than two in the five-minute frame. NJIT appeared to break through in the second overtime, scoring the first five points and going up, 64-59, after Holiday made the second of two foul shots with 2:43 left. But the visitors closed the second overtime on an 8-3 run, including a buzzer-beating tip-in for junior Marcus Starks with 1.3 seconds left on his first basket of the game.
 
That led to a third overtime period, the first time an NJIT men's basketball has gone that deep into a contest since at least 1998-99, the first time the school began noting overtime games in its archives. The Highlanders were in their second year at the NCAA Division II level in 1998-99.
 
Pippen made a pair of free throws to give Chicago State a 69-67 advantage with 4:06 left in the game, but Woods nailed a triple from the left corner on the next possession, putting the Highlanders on top to stay.
 
Chicago State missed a 3-point try on the other end and Woods grabbed the defensive rebound to begin a possession that ended on a drive to the baseline and short jump shot by Nweke that stretched NJIT's lead to 72-69. The Cougars again missed a three and Woods, assisted by Miller, connected from the top of the key for three more points and a 75-69 lead with 2:18 left.
 
Matt Ross snapped the run with a layup for the Cougars, but Flores fired in another 3-pointer from the top of the key and the Highlanders were up by seven, 78-71, with 1:29 on the clock.
 
Chicago State battled back and closed the gap to 81-78 when Dismukes made both ends of a one-and-one with 20.6 seconds left. However, NJIT then broke the Chicago State press, leaving Holiday open for an uncontested layup with 18.2 seconds left and Nweke grabbed a defensive rebound off of a missed CSU 3-point try to finally secure the win for the Highlanders.
 
“I thought both teams could be proud of the way they played and fought to the end,” said NJIT coach Jim Engles, whose team is 2-0 to open Great West Conference play in each of the last two seasons. “The difference today was that we made some plays down at the end that gave us some separation in the third overtime.
 
NJIT will step out of the Great West for three non-conference contests beginning Monday in a 7 pm game at in-state rival Fairleigh Dickinson. After that, the Highlanders will host Penn on Thursday night and then visit first-time foe New Orleans on January 21.