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WATCH HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WIN OVER BROWN

NEWARK, NJ—Having lived the previous five games, NJIT women's basketball coach Steve Lanpher was tiring of moral victories. On Saturday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center, his team gave him a bona fide win, playing its strongest defensive game of the year and finishing off visiting Brown, 48-43.
 
With the visit from Brown, NJIT (5-15) played its sixth game since December 28 and with the exception of a blowout loss at the hands of Clemson on January 2, the Highlanders had a reasonable shot to win every one of the other five.
 
Even so, all the reasonable chances resulted in just one win until NJIT topped Brown (6-8) on Saturday.
 
The recent six-game stretch began with a 77-72 loss to VCU, which prevailed for its program-record 10th consecutive victory after trailing the Highlanders by 15 at halftime. Next, NJIT beat underdog Wagner.
 
Then came the lopsided loss to Clemson. But facing Marshall, a team built to compete in the well-regarded Conference USA, the Highlanders fought back from a seven-point halftime deficit and took a one-point lead with 1:22 left, only to fall by a single point in the end.
 
Perhaps the most painful loss was earlier this week, on January 7, when NJIT built a 10-point advantage by the half at Delaware State. Fading into a seven-point hole with just 1:20 left in regulation, the Highlanders rallied and forced overtime, but fell short with a 75-72 defeat after the added period.
 
Against that backdrop, NJIT took on Brown, a team that came in ranked fifth in the nation in 3-point accuracy (40.8 pct), led by junior Sophie Bikofsky, who tops the nation in 3-pointers made per game (3.67) and in 3-point field goal accuracy (53.0 percent).
 
In addition, the Bears who came in averaging 67 points per game, had scored as many as 92 in a game and had topped the 60-point mark in 11 of their 13 games, falling under 60 twice (59 vs. Maine and 50 vs. Hampton).
 
Against NJIT, Brown scored a season-low 43, with Bikofsky hitting just one of four 3-point tries and finishing with 3 points, far below her average of 15.4 ppg.
 
Senior Lauren Clarke, Brown's top scorer for the season (17.8 ppg) managed to be the only Bear who scored in double-figures against the Highlanders, getting 11 points on 5-for-15 shooting. A 37-for-86 3-point shooter for the season, she went 1-for-5 from distance on Saturday.
 
The final box score showed Brown, a team that had made 114 3-pointers over its first 13 games, with a 4-for-17 mark from beyond the arc against the Highlanders.
 
While defense keyed the win for NJIT, the Highlanders needed to score enough themselves and they had two players in double-figures, juniors Martina Matejcikova (13 points) and Alyssa Albanese (10 points).
 
NJIT, which trailed for much of the first half, came back and built a 27-21 halftime lead. The Highlanders had gone up by 9 points early in the second half. But Brown rallied and led by four with 9:10 remaining in the game.
 
Having squandered significant second-half leads against VCU and Delaware State, the Highlanders had to a repeat.
 
There was no repeat, as they dug in and outscored the visitors 13-4 over the final 9:10, including a stop on Brown's last possession that began with the Bears trailing by three with the ball and 32 seconds left.
 
The possession ended with a well-guarded, forced underhanded missed 3-point try from the top of the key by Bickofsky, the national 3-point shooting leader, with the shot clock and game clock approaching their final ticks.
 
NJIT inbounded the ball and Matejcikova, whose 3-pointer from the left corner broke a 41-41 tie and put the Highlanders in command with 1:45 remaining, was fouled in the dying seconds and connected on both free throws to seal the 48-43 win.
 
After the game, Lanpher, a coach who believes in defense above all else, was with his team's work and cited several of his players.
 
Last season, Lanpher led NJIT to the final women's basketball tournament championship of the now-dissolved Great West Conference with tournament semifinal and championship wins that held the opposition to 42 in each game.
 
"Brown is a well-coached team that is difficult to defend and shoots the ball very well, especially on threes," said the second-year head coach of the Highlanders. "We did a good job defending their sets and got through ball screens to get out on their shooters."
 
Bikofsky is a difficult matchup for most teams, with her 5-foot-11 height and ability to shoot from distance. Lanpher and his staff countered with senior Uju Nwankwo, a 6-foot player who typically defends the low post, but who has the rare size and quickness to neutralize a Bikofsky on the perimeter.
 
Nwankwo, the co-Defensive Player of the Year in the Great West for 2012-13, finished with 9 points, an NJIT-best 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. More importantly, Bikofsky, who led all rebounders with 9, shot 1-for-6 overall and 1-for-4 on threes.
 
"Uju did a great job guarding the leading 3-point shooter in the country," said Lanpher, noting how well his senior did on Bikofsky, who had reached double-figure scoring in all but two previous games and earlier notched 3-poibnt shooting games of 6-for-8 game and 7-for-11 this season.
 
Lanpher also praised Albanese, his 5-foot-3 point guard. "Alyssa did a tremendous job," said Lanpher. "She ran the point for 36 minutes and had 6 assists and just two turnovers with her 10 points. She also defended (Brown point guard Lauren Clarke) well. Clarke got her 11 points, but she needed 15 shots to do it and Alyssa played a big part in that."
 
Then there was the game's leading scorer, Matejcikova. "I thought Martina had her best game," said Lanpher. "She just personifies hard work and determination and she was solid all game, making five of her six shots, including the big ones down the stretch.
 
NJIT led at the half, 27-21, paced by wankwo's 7 points and 5 rebounds, followed by Matejcikova (6 points) and Albanese (5 points, 4 assists).
 
The top scorer for the Bears in the first half was Clarke, the senior from Colts Neck, NJ, with 6 points. Senior Carly Wellington added 5 points for the Bears.
 
Brown scored the game's first basket and did not trail for nearly the first 14 minutes, finally falling behind at 18-16 on a 3-pointer by Albanese with 6:21 remaining in the opening half.
 
Having built the early lead, Brown was stuck at 16 points from 8:27 on a Clarke layup until 1:33, when Clarke scored another layup. In that span of nearly seven minutes, the score went from 16-13, Brown, to 23-16, NJIT.
 
In the second half, the Bears used a 14-2 run between the 14:54 mark and the 9:10 mark to turn a 33-25 deficit into a 39-35 lead capped by senior Sophie Beutel's bucket at 9:10.
 
The Highlanders then closed the spigot, allowing the visitors just four points the rest of the way.
 
Next up for the Highlanders, who are in a four-game stretch against teams from the Ivy League, is a home game against Harvard on Wednesday with a noon start in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. That game has a rare weekday noon start.