Box Score (PDF)
OREM, UT – Senior G
PJ Miller tied a career-high with 14 points while freshman G
Ky Howard chipped in with 11 points and a career-high tying eight rebounds in NJIT's 57-52 win over Utah Valley in the UCCU Center on Saturday. But it was the Highlanders' work on the glass that fueled a comeback for their first victory against the Wolverines in seven tries in Orem and snapped Utah Valley's 15-game conference home winning streak.
NJIT out-rebounded Utah Valley, 50-33, and gathered a season-high 20 offensive boards – the highest total for the program since recording 20 in the 2010-11 season opener at Manhattan on Nov. 12, 2010. Those totals are tied for third best all-time against a Division I opponent in the Highlanders' D-I era (the record is 22 at Longwood, Feb. 18, 2008).
Trailing 50-45 with less than four minutes remaining, the Highlanders went on a 10-0 run in a span of 2:37 to pull ahead for good. Starting with a three-pointer by senior F
Ryan Woods with 3:58 left, NJIT outscored Utah Valley, 12-2, for the remainder of the game to snap its three-game losing streak and an eight-game road skid dating back to last year.
"Again, I was really impressed with our grit and our determination; we fought hard for this win on the road and that's huge for us," Head Coach
Jim Engles said. "Sometimes our shots don't fall and sometimes we make mistakes on the defensive end, but the fight in our guys has never faltered. That's one thing that's been consistent."
Three of the most significant offensive boards came late. Trailing, 50-48, with 3:41 to go, sophomore F
Odera Nweke collected a rebound off a Woods' missed layup that led to a shooting foul. He made both free throws to tie the game for the first time in more than five minutes.
Nweke then put the Highlanders ahead for good on a layup off of another offensive board, making it 52-50 with 2:41 left in regulation. The native of Richmond, Tx., finished with a career-high 11 points and a career-high tying seven rebounds – five of which were offensive.
The final key rebound came from Howard. After two free throws by junior G Holton Hunsaker made it a one-possession game, 55-52, with 1:23 left, the Highlanders misfired on a pair of shots attempts to go back up by two scores. But Howard collected the second miss with 54 seconds to go and the Wolverines never scored again.
Woods connected on a pair of free throws with 13 seconds remaining to ice the contest after senior F Nick Thompson missed a wide open layup.
"The rebounding effort was phenomenal. Daquan [Holiday] set the tone early by coming in with nine rebounds at the half," Engles said. "That sparked Odera and then that offensiverebound by Ky was probably the biggest of the game. You have to give these guys a lot of credit."
Howard has now grabbed exactly eight rebounds in three of his last four games.
Sophomore F
Daquan Holiday finished with a career-high and game-high 14 rebounds – the most by a Highlander since Isaish Wilkerson notched 15 at Houston Baptist on Feb. 18, 2012. He fell just two shy of the Nesho Milosevic's D-I record of 16 at Maine on Dec. 1, 2007.
Along with a game-high four steals, Miller was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. Although entering play last in the conference in free-throw percentage, NJIT finished an impressive 18-for-22 (81.8 percent) at the stripe.
The Highlanders' effort was enough to negate the triple-double by junior C Ben Aird, who finished with a game-high 26 points – which tied his career-high set two games earlier against Austin Peay on Dec. 28 -- 13 rebounds and a career-high 10 blocks.
He became just the second Wolverine all-time to record a triple-double and just the eighth in all D-I this season. Ironically, the first occurred just two games earlier, when teammate Nick Thompson registered 13 points, 10 rebounds and a program-record 12 assists in that same game against Austin Peay.
But the preseason GWC First-Team selection missed his final three chances – two free throws that could have tied the game with 3:41 remaining and a jumper to go ahead with 3:05 left in the game.
Despite Aird's success, NJIT held the overall edge in points in the paint, 30-20.
Always a key for the Highlanders under Engles has been team defense. NJIT held Utah Valley to shooting just a season-low 30.4 percent (17-56) for the game and just 18.2 percent (4-22) from deep. Coming into the game, the Wolverines were leading the Great West Conference in field-goal marksmanship at 45.6 percent.
The Highlanders completely neutralized Utah Valley's leading scorer, Holton Hunsaker. Coming off a career-high 37 points in his last game at Chattanooga, the point guard was held to just nine points on 2-of-10 shooting and 1-of-5 from beyond the arc.
In addition, the Highlanders point guards combined to score 25 points.
The Highlanders led for the entire first half and took a 24-15 lead into halftime. The lead expanded to a game-high 11 on a
Chris Flores layup at 19:41 left to play. However, the home team then went on a furious 22-6 run from 18:39 to 11:49 to grab its game-high lead of five points, 37-32.
"Even though we had never defeated them here, our guys had cinfidence coming in," Engles said. "It's big leaving this place with a win and it's going to be a nice flight home."
Utah Valley Head Coach Dick Hunsaker, whose team has still won 20 of its last 23 conference games, added, ""I thought NJIT used its athleticism and was quicker and more aggressive than we were at times. This is a terrific win for them."
NJIT (7-8, 1-0) now has a week to prepare for its next game – a home bout against Chicago State (4-13) on Saturday. Utah Valley (7-10, 0-1) will next play out of conference at University of Missouri Kansas City on Thursday.
Going back to the GWC semi-finals last season, the Highlanders have now won two consecutive games against the Wolverines after starting just 1-11 since the schools began squaring off in 2006-07. The 11 loses represent the most by NJIT than against any other D-I opponent.
The two Great West nemeses will square off for a second time at Fleisher Athletic Center on Feb. 16.
Write-up courtesy of Matt Provence
