Box Score


NEWARK, NJ—Marshall's Suporia Dickens made two free throws with 22.4 seconds left, lifting her team to a 57-56 lead and the Thundering Herd stopped NJIT's ensuing final possession to escape the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center with the one-point women's basketball victory over the Highlanders Sunday afternoon.  
 
Dickens, a senior who finished with 14 points, shared game scoring honors with her junior teammate AJ Johnson, as Marshall moved to 7-6 with its first road win of the season.
 
Scoring the first road win of the season in January is noteworthy on the first read, but it is less dramatic in the context of a schedule that has seen Thundering Herd play on another team's court for just the second time in 13 starts. The only two previous forays away from Huntington, West Virginia, had been to Robert Morris, outside of Pittsburgh, and then in-state to Charleston for a neutral site game vs. West Virginia. Otherwise, the Herd had 10 home games.
 
NJIT, paced by 10 points apiece from juniors Alyssa Albanese and Martina Matejcikova, dropped to 4-14 with Sunday's tough-luck defeat.
 
A lot of the statistical ingredients that tend to accompany victory were there for the Highlanders against Marshall, which competes in the high-level Conference USA.
 
NJIT, which was averaging a too-high 17.6 turnovers through its first 17 games, had a season-low 9 miscues against Marshall. The Highlanders also shot a season-best 86.7 percent (13-for-15) at the foul line, a valuable performance in a game as close as Sunday's.
 
NJIT also held its own under the backboards against the taller Herd and edging the visitors in rebounding, 39-37, led by 7 boards each from Shakia Robinson, Uju Nwankwo, and Kim Tullis.
 
The rebounding performance against a team from a high-level conference actually continued a trend for the Highlanders. They have been on the plus side rebounding for four straight games, a stretch that includes once-beaten Virginia Commonwealth from the Colonial Athletic Association (+9), Wagner (+12), Clemson from the powerful ACC (+1), and now, Marshall from Conference USA.
 
However, a killer total that jumps out from Sunday's box score is NJIT's 1-for-16 shooting on 3-point attempts, with only freshman Alana Dudley (1-for-4) connecting from downtown, despite six different Highlanders attempting threes in the game.
 
NJIT took an early 2-1 lead on a pair of Matejcikova foul shots just 1:01 into the contest, but Marshall ran off seven unanswered points, grabbing an 8-2 advantage on a Dickens jump shot with 17:07 left in the first half. The Highlanders would not lead again until the closing minutes of the second half.
 
The Thundering Herd's big lead of the day was nine, 33-24, on Leah Scott's layup with 2:02 still to play in the first half.
 
But NJIT hung around, trailing by no more than six points over the final 10:37 of the game. Still, while the Highlanders stayed close, they couldn't find a way to reclaim the lead until very late.
 
Finally, NJIT pulled to within a point, 53-52, on Robinson's 12-foot jumper just ahead of a shot clock violation with 3:21 remaining.
 
On the other end, Robinson, the graduate student forward, guarding Dickens, tied her up for a held ball, with the possession arrow pointing to the Highlanders.
 
With possession, NJIT carefully advanced the ball and Albanese, the fearless 5-foot-3 junior, nailed a floater in the lane, again just before the shot clock sounded, putting the Highlanders ahead 54-53, with 2:17 to play.
 
NJIT's first lead since Matejcikova's foul shots made the score 2-1, didn't last long, as Scott answered the Albanese bucket with one for Marshall 28 seconds later, flipping the one-point advantage to the visitors, 55-54, with 1:52 to play.
 
However, Matejcikova, who hadn't been to the foul line since scoring NJIT's first two points, drew a foul with 1:22 left and she swished both foul shots for a 56-55 Highlander lead.
 
With Marshall down a point, i6-foot-3 junior Chukwuka Ezeigbo, a product of Trenton, NJ, who had a large group of supporters on hand, worked free under the basket. But her open try missed and Nwankwo was there to clear the rebound for the Highlanders, who had the ball and a one-point lead, but still too much time to hold the ball without attempting a shot.
 
After a timeout, Albanese again drove into the lane but Marshall's Dickens blocked her shot and controlled the ball for a rebound. However, Dickens was swarmed by Highlanders near the baseline and she appeared unsure how to advance in traffic.
 
Dickens was still trapped when Albanese was whistled for a foul attempting to reach in and tip the ball free. That sent Dickens to the other end, where her two free throws with 22.4 seconds left, gave Marshall a 57-56 advantage.
 
The Highlanders still had time to get a good shot, but Marshall defended well and the last NJIT shot went to Nwankwo, who took a 12-foot contested jumper in the lane over an extended defender. Although the try fell well short of the rim with the look of a ball that had been deflected,  the officials ruled it hadn't been touched by the defense, giving Marshall possession with 1.3 seconds left. The Herd successfully inbounded the ball and the final buzzer sounded a moment later.
 
The visitors had led at the half, 35-28, paced by 9 points for Johnson, followed closely by Dickens and Leah Scott, with 7 points apiece. For NJIT, Nwankwo had 7 first-half points, while Albanese and Matejcikova each scored six for the Highlanders in opening 20 minutes.
 
NJIT, which completed a four-game homestand with the Marshall contest, will go on the road for a 5:30 pm game on Tuesday at Delaware State in Dover. After the trip to Delaware, NJIT will be back in Newark for a three-game homestand against teams from the Ivy League, beginning with a January 11 2 pm tilt vs. Brown in the Fleisher Athletic Center.