NEWARK, NJ—Winfield Willis scored 20 points, leading five double-figure scorers for NJIT Monday night, as the Highlanders won their 2014-15 men's basketball home opener against Maine, 90-86, in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
A junior guard from Baltimore, Willis shot 7-for-10 from the field, including 2-for-4 on 3-pointers, and 4-for-5 at the foul line on the way to his team-leading 20 points, as NJIT evened its season record to 1-1 with the victory over Maine (0-2).
 
 Willis was one of four NJIT starters to notch at lead 11 points and senior Odera Nweke came off the Highlanders bench to score a personal career-best 16 points.
 
Junior guard Ky Howard matched his own career scoring high for the Highlanders with 17 points and sophomores Tim Coleman and Damon Lynn scored 12 points and 11 points, respectively, for the winners.
 
As a team, the Highlanders shot 58.8 percent (30-51) from the floor for the game, their best field goal percentage against a Division I opponent since January 15, 2011, when they set the program DI record against Houston Baptist (61.8 percent; 34-55).
 
Coleman and Howard shared the NJIT rebounding lead with 7 apiece and Howard paced the Highlanders in both assists (5) and steals (2). NJIT, sharing the ball on offense and executing its plays, registered assists on 21 of its 30 baskets, with Coleman and Lynn each picking up 4 assists behind Howard's five. Senior post player Daquan Holiday notched a game-best 3 blocked shots for the Highlanders.
 
Maine, which made 50.8 percent of its shots (30-59), had four double-figure scorers of its own, led by junior wing Shaun Lawton's 20 points. Redshirt junior Ethan Mackey contributed 18 points, followed by 14 from Zarko Valjarevic and 13 from Till Gloger.
 
Lawton shot 8-for-9 in the game and Mackey wasn't far behind, connecting on 7 of his 9 shots from the floor. Valjarevic, a dangerous deep threat, was 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and Lawton made 3-of-4 from distance. Gloger, a 6-foot-8 junior from Germany, made all four of his shots from the floor and was 5-for-5 from the foul line. Valjarevic, a senior from Serbia, had a game-high 9 rebounds, leading the Black Bears to a 33-29 margin in that category.
 
Freshman Kevin Little led Maine with 6 assists, while committing just one turnover in 25 minutes' action in his second college game and Lawton added 4 assists, while making a game-high 4 steals on the defensive end.
 
NJIT hit on 62.5 percent of its shots (15-24) in the first half against Maine Monday night. However, the Highlanders were undercut a bit by 9 first-half turnovers. In the second half, they cooled slightly to 55.6 percent shooting (15-27), but turned ball over just 4 times in the fast-paced final 20 minutes.
 
Last season, NJIT took both games against Maine, 88-82 in Maine and 81-72 in Newark, but, except for the final scores being high and close, those contests were a lot different from this season's first meeting. Last season, the Highlanders built big leads and Maine closed late. On Monday, there were 10 ties and 6 lead changes and the biggest lead for the Highlanders was 9 and Maine's biggest lead was 6.
 
Although they would eventually combine for 176 points, both teams started slowly, with Maine reaching double figures on a Little 3-pointer that gave his team an 11-9 lead 6:35 into the game. NJIT answered with a Holiday layup 30 seconds later.
 
It was 13-12 for Maine midway through the opening half
 
Maine took its biggest lead of the night, 23-17 on a 3-pointer by Troy Reid-Knight with 6:22 on the first-half clock, but NJIT used an 11-3 run in the ensuing 3:04 to claim a 28-26 advantage on Odera Nweke's layup. Nweke's bucket was assisted by Coleman and every basket in the 11-3 run had an assist attached, with five different Highlanders credited with assists on the five baskets,
 
Maine answered with a rally of its own, going up 35-30 when Valjarevic connected for one of his four triples with 1:50 on the clock.
 
NJIT then scored the final six points of the opening half, taking a 36-35 lead into the locker room after Nweke dunked, assisted by Lynn, with 23 ticks on the clock.
 
Mackey of the Black Bears was the game's leading scorer at the break, netting 10 points, followed by Lawton's 7. Willis had 8 points to top the balanced Highlanders, followed closely by Lynn's 7 points and 6 each from Howard and Nweke.
 
Up a point at halftime, NJIT led for the entire second half, but was never able to gain much separation from the Black Bears.
 
Even when they built a 9-point lead, 76-67, with 6:16 remaining in the game, the Highlanders could never quite drop the hammer. Howard made two free throws to put his time up by 9, but NJIT missed 3 of its next 4 foul shots and committed two turnovers, opening the door for Maine to come back, with the Black Bears closing the gap to 83-81 on two free throws by Gloger with 1:13 remaining.
 
However, Howard passed to Nweke for a layup in the lane and a foul on the play set up an old-school 3-point play that made it a two-possession Highlander lead, 86-81, with 54 seconds remaining.
 
Maine, which never gave in, answered with a 3-pointer by Lawton with 27 seconds left, but Howard hit one of two free throws four seconds later and Coleman allowed the Highlanders to exhale when he was fouled pulling down a defensive rebound and made two free throws for an 89-84 lead 6 seconds before the final buzzer.
 
Little would make a pair of free throws for Maine to trim the NJIT lead to one possession, 89-86, but Howard removed all doubt for the home team by making the first of two free throws with 1.2 seconds left.
 
NJIT, which is playing 6 games between November 14 and November 29, has a quick turnaround, heading north to Albany, NY, for a 7 pm game Wednesday night at UAlbany, the two-time defending champion of the America East Conference.
 
UAlbany will unfurl its America East championship banner in pre-game ceremonies. The Great Danes did the same thing with their 2012-13 championship banner before their home game against NJIT last November 12 and the teams followed with a down-to-the-wire tussle that ended in a 71-65 UAlbany win. The Great Danes later topped NJIT, 66-65, on December 1, 2103 in Newark.