ANN ARBOR, MI—For more than a century, the University of Michigan band has played the iconic fight song "The Victors" in honor of their beloved Wolverines.

And the song was heard many times during Saturday's men's basketball game in Michigan's Crisler Center. What no one knew until the final seconds is that on this day "the victors" would wear the visiting red of New Jersey Institute of Technology, which scored a 72-70 upset that resonated outside of the arena and outside of Ann Arbor, shocking the world of college basketball.
 
Playing in front of 12,226 fans in Michigan's Crisler Center, with the rich tradition of Wolverines basketball that goes back decades and has grown to include appearances in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in each of the last two seasons, NJIT (3-5) came out on top, with sophomore Damon Lynn topping the Highlander scorers with 20 points and juniors Ky Howard and Winfield Willis adding 17 apiece.
Senior Daquan Holiday did not put up gaudy numbers (4 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocked shots), but he made three of the biggest plays in NJIT Athletics history in the closing seconds.
 
First, Holiday grabbed an offensive rebound of an NJIT miss on a try that came with the shot clock expiring, and he was fouled.
 
With 4.3 seconds remaining, Holiday sank both ends of a one-and-one free throw opportunity to give the Highlanders a 72-69 lead.
 
Next, Michigan's Kameron Chatman was quickly fouled in the backcourt by NJIT in order to preclude what could have been a game-tying 3-point try if the Wolverines got close enough to attempt a three.

With 2.6 seconds on the clock, Chatman made the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second, hoping his team, now down by two points, could score off of the rebound to tie the score that way.  But Holiday spoiled the strategy by securing his team-leading sixth rebound, securing the stunning upset victory in the process.
 
Although the Highlander win was a surprise, it was a deserved result against a heavily-favored elite team on that team's home court.

Michigan came in ranked 17th in the latest Associated Press national Top 25 and 16th in the national coaches poll sponsored by USA TODAY. The Wolverines were 6-1 and their only loss was 60-55 on November 25 vs. #12/#11 Villanova. Since that loss, Michigan had won two, most recently a 68-65 victory over another marquee program, Syracuse, on December 2.
Michigan lost to NJIT despite a spectacular individual effort by junior guard Caris LeVert, who scored a game-high and personal career-best 32 points. LeVert, a pure shooter at 6-foot-7, likely has an NBA playing future and he scored 25 of Michigan's 38 second-half points. For the game, he made 11-of-18 shots from the field, including 6-for-8 on 3-pointers and 4-for-4 at the foul line.
 
Sophomore point guard Derrick Walton, Jr., who started 36 games last season for a Wolverine team that finished 28-9 and advanced to the 2014 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, added 16 points for Michigan, but no one else on the Wolverines scored more than 7 points against the determined Highlanders.
 
NJIT's effort was much more of a team affair, as the Highlanders connected on 27 of their 46 shots from the field, a clip of 58.7 percent. That accuracy was just a tick below the 58,8 percent they shot in beating Maine earlier this season. And the field goal percentage against Maine was the best for an NJIT team against a Division I opponent since the Highlanders shot 61.8 percent against Houston Baptist, their best ever against a DI foe back in 2011 on January 15.
 
Included in Saturday's hot shooting against Michigan, the first Top 25 opponent ever for NJIT since the Highlanders began Division I competition in 2006-07, was 11-for-17 accuracy from 3-point distance.
 
Lynn shot 6-for-10 from distance, including some huge buckets in the victorious closing stretch, and Willis was 3-for-3 on triples and 6-for-7 on all of his field goal attempts. Howard made one of two threes he attempted and was 7-for-9 from the field overall, while adding a game-best 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
 
Willis and Howard each shot 2-for-2 at the foul line and NJIT was 7-for-9, including one intentional late miss by Holiday with less than two seconds remaining. Michigan was 13-for-14 at the line with its only miss coming when Chatman misfired hoping it would lead to a tying put-back.
 
The total team rebounds were even at 26 each way, with NJIT's Holiday and Michigan's LeVert leading with 6 rebounds apiece.

How it developed: the first half
Despite a spirited effort and 61.1 percent shooting (11-18) in the first half, NJIT trailed at the break, 32-27.
 
Much of the halftime deficit could be traced to what has been a recurring problem for the 2014-15 Highlanders—too many turnovers. In the opening 20 minutes, NJIT had 11 turnovers to four for the Wolverines and the points-off-turnovers favored Michigan, 16-2, a huge factor considering the overall score differential was just five points.
 
Unfortunately for the Highlanders, the first-half points-off-turnovers deficit was nothing new. They had committed at least 17 turnovers in each of their preceding five games and points-off-turnovers were telling in several losses, the worst being a 25-11 deficit in points-off-turnovers at home against UMass Lowell in a game decided by two points (63-61 for Lowell on November 22).

How it developed: the second half
Things were different in the second half against Michigan. While continuing their sizzling shooting over the final 20 minutes (16-28 FG, 57.1 pct; 6-9 on 3s, 66.7 pct), the Highlanders all but eliminated their miscues, committing just two turnovers, which Michigan converted into three second-half points.
 
Faced with the challenge of trying to close out a road win against a nationally-ranked team, the Highlanders outscored the home team in the second half, 45-38.
 
NJIT erased the five-point halftime deficit quickly, forging a tie at 34-34 on a Willis 3-pointer with 18:04 left. Michigan responded with an 8-2 spurt and led 42-36 after a LeVert layup with 16:39 left.
 
The Wolverines still led 44-38 when 2014 NCAA Tournament hero Spike Albrecht made a jump shot at the 15:31 mark. Although NJIT was hanging in, it appeared as if Michigan was heating up, with 12 points in the opening 4:29 of the second half.
 
But then the Highlander defense, solid and intense all day, put on the clamps, holding Michigan without another point until a pair of Walton free throws with 8:09 left for a total dry spell of 7:24. And it wouldn't be until a LeVert 3-pointer with 7:41 remaining that Michigan made its first field goal after the long ago bucket by Albrecht.
 
By the time LeVert hit the three, NJIT, which never stopped scoring in the second half, had gone ahead by seven points.
 
Even so, Michigan gave a glimpse of its potential firepower, firing in three 3-pointers, two by LeVert, sandwiched around one by Walton in a span 89 seconds. The flurry completely erased NJIT's lead, with the Wolverines going up 55-53 on LeVert's triple with 6:12 on the clock.
 
Despite absorbing the proverbial haymaker, NJIT stayed on its feet. Lynn answered the Michigan flurry with a three that put the Highlanders back up 56-55 with 5:38 left and there would be four ties in the ensuing 1:34 before NJIT seized the upper hand.
 
Trailing by a point, Willis hit two free throws to first tie and then put the Highlanders on top 63-62 with 4:04 left.
 
After a Michigan miss, NJIT's Howard hit a jumper for a 65-62 lead. By this time, Michigan had chosen to ride LeVert, hoping his hot hand would carry the favorites to victory.
 
He scored to trim the Highlander lead to a point, but Lynn drilled a three on the other end for a 4-point Highlander lead with 2:39 left.
 
LeVert answered with two free throws, but NJIT's Howard scored, as the teams traded baskets with the game clock getting closer and closer to zero.
 
LeVert hit a 3-pointer to pull his team to within a point, 70-69, at the 1:41 mark.
 
NJIT followed with a rare empty trip, but then Willis stole the ball from the Michigan star LeVert, setting up the final winning seconds for NJIT.

Defense and rebounding kept NJIT in it early
 The Highlanders who turned the ball over four times in the opening 2:18 without ever getting a shot, compensated with a defense that held Michigan to only two points in the same span. The Highlanders also grabbed all three rebounds on their defensive end.
 
"We were a little nervous on offense early, but we competed on defense and controlled the boards and eventually we got into a flow on offense and that part came around," said NJIT coach Jim Engles.
 
Said the coach: "We played really well today. I'm really proud of the way my guys competed and the way they played overall."
 
Although they had never before faced a ranked opponent, the Highlanders had a lot of recent experience to draw upon for what proved to be the winning stretch run.
 
The preceding four NJIT games were decided by margins of two, five, three, and four points, so the Highlanders were comfortable in a close game late, even though two of the four had ended in defeat. One of the losses came against another elite-conference team, Marquette of the BIG EAST, 62-57, on November 24 on the road, on national TV, and in a big arena in front of 11.966 fans, so that part wasn't a new thing for NJIT.
 
One of the wins came exactly a week before the Michigan game, an 84-81 win in Pittsburgh over Duquesne, NJIT's first-ever men's basketball win against a team from the powerful Atlantic 10 Conference.
 
With those experiences fresh in their minds, the Highlanders were ready to challenge Big 10 Conference and national power Michigan in front of more than 12,000 fans in Ann Arbor and many more watching on the Big 10 Network.
 
"We were making shots, competing on the boards, playing defense and once we started to limit our turnovers, we stayed close and gave ourselves a chance going into the final minutes," Engles said. "When it comes down to the final minutes it's about making plays and today we made the plays we needed."

The season continues
NJIT deserves to bask in the huge victory at Michigan. But the Highlanders have 21 games left on the schedule beginning Tuesday at 7:30 pm when they host St. Francis Brooklyn in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
St. Francis holds a 4-0 lead in the all-time series and has won its last two games to rebound from an 0-5 start. The Terriers were the preseason coaches' poll pick to win the Northeast Conference this season.
 
The game, which is the only one at home for the NJIT men until December 30, is part of a men's-women's doubleheader. The NJIT women, who will host Hofstra at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, have won their last two games to forge a 5-4 record for the season.