MILWAUKEE—Marquette came into its nationally-televised men's basketball game against visiting NJIT Monday night with a lot of built-in advantages. But all those advantages did very little for Marquette until the closing minutes, indeed the closing seconds, when the Golden Eagles squeezed out a 62-57 victory in front of 11,966 fans at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
 
Senior forward Juan Anderson led all scorers with 20 points and added 9 rebounds for Marquette (2-2), while freshman guard Duane Wilson added 18 points, half of which came on 9-for-10 shooting at the foul line. Steve Taylor, Jr., a burly 6-foot-7 low post player, pulled down a game-best 12 rebounds for the winners.
 
NJIT (1-4) got a team-leading 13 points, 10 of which came in the opening half, from sophomore guard Damon Lynn, who also had 7 rebounds and a game-leading 3 steals.
 
Also for the Highlanders, Daquan Holiday scored 12 points, the most ever for the senior against a Division I opponent. He had scored 10 four different times in his career, including in this year's season opener against another BIG EAST Conference team, St. John's. He was 4-for-4, both from the field and from the foul line, in 16 minutes of work.
 
Guard Ky Howard had 9 rebounds to lead NJIT for the fifth time in its five games, while senior Odera Nweke came off the bench for 8 points, 8 rebounds, and a game-leading and career-high 4 blocked shots.
 
Marquette, which shares its downtown home arena with the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA, competes in one of the nation's elite basketball conferences, the BIG EAST. And Marquette has reached the NCAA Tournament at the end of 31 seasons, winning the whole thing in 1977.
 
To put that in some perspective, the 31 NCAA Tournament berths for Marquette are nearly four times the number of Division I seasons NJIT has in total (8).
 
Despite the fact that Marquette's national title was nearly 38 years ago, this is not some moribund once-great program. Marquette reached the Final Four in 2003 and the Elite Eight as recently as 2013.
 
But coaches and supporters of underdog teams are fond of noting that, no matter what, the scoreboard always reads 0-0 at the opening tip.
 
The visiting Highlanders held true to the spirit of that adage, going toe-to-toe with Marquette for 40 minutes Monday night.
 
In fact, was in the lead for 24:46 of the 40-minute game; it was tied for 4:30; and favored Marquette led for 10:44, but 8:25 of that time came in the last 8:25 of the contest.
 
NJIT, which led at the half, 30-28, did not drop behind for good until Juan Anderson (20 points, 9 rebounds) made two free throws for a 46-44 Marquette, lead with 8:25 remaining.
 
The Golden Eagles eventually claimed a 50-44 advantage after a pair of free throws for Duane Wilson with 6:41 left, but NJIT was not done. The Highlanders later closed to within a single point three more times, the latest on a pair of Howard free throws that made the score 56-55, Marquette, with 92 seconds left in the game.
 
And it was still single-possession deficit for the visitors, who trailed 59-57 after Holiday converted a pair of foul shots for the Highlanders with 23 seconds remaining
 
However, the two Holiday free throws would account for NJIT's last points of the night.
 
Duane Wilson made two foul shots that gave MU a 61-57 lead.
 
Then a call that NJIT disputed to no avail settled things.
 
Lynn drove into the lane and got off a floating jump shot in the paint. The shot went through the net and contact ensued, drawing a whistle as Lynn fell to the floor. The question of "block-charge" went in favor of Marquette, when the officials waved off the would-be bucket, calling Lynn for a player-control foul on a play that would have been a basket and free throw if the official had ruled a blocking foul on the Marquette defender.
 
All that took place with 12 seconds left and the Golden Eagles added another point, their 62nd, when Steve Taylor, Jr. made the second of two free throws with 10 seconds on the game clock.
 
Marquette was aided considerably in its second-half comeback by a wide disparity in the number of fouls called and free throws awardsed
 
After a near-even first half when NJIT was called for 9 fouls to 10 for Marquette, the second half saw the Highlanders whistled 18 times to 8 for the home team.
 
The Golden Eagles, who outscored the Highlanders in the second half, 34-27, got half their second-half points at the foul line, where they were 17-for-23 over the final 20 minutes. That helped Marquette to overcome 8-for-22 (36.4 percent) second-half shooting from the field and 18-for-51 (35.3 percent) from the floor in the game.
 
NJIT, which shot a sizzling 61.1 percent (11-for-18) in the first half from the field, dropped off in the second, shooting 8-for-33 in the second half,
 
Still, the Highlanders had the higher shooting percentage for the game, 37.3 percent-to-35.3 percent. They also shot better at the foul line, 15-19 (78.9 percent) for the game to Marquette's 67.6 percent (23-for-34). But Marquette took15 more foul shots and made 8 more than did the visitors.
 
NJIT also had a slight rebounding edge over the BIG EAST team, 37-36.
 
The Highlanders, who have just played four games in seven days, will have a slight respite, breaking from competition until Saturday, when they come back from Thanksgiving to visit Duquesne in a 2 pm game in Pittsburgh.