The Highlanders, who have three regular season games remaining, will return to action on February 24, hosting Maryland Eastern Shore at 7pm in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
NJIT, which last played on February 16 in Texas, is coming off a heartbreaking 54-53 loss at Texas-Pan American.
The Highlanders surged ahead by two, 53-51, after a driving layup by
Alyssa Albanese with 47 seconds left on the clock. The Broncs' Shawnte' Goff hit an acrobatic bank shot with 20.6 seconds remaining in the game and drew a foul, sending her to the free throw line with the game tied at 53. Goff converted the free throw for a 54-53 lead.
After a timeout by Texas-Pan American, NJIT's Albanese had a chance to give the Highlanders the lead and drove into the lane, but Goff blocked the shot. Goff grabbed the defensive rebound that followed with nine seconds left and advanced the ball ahead to teammate Rickell Preston, who missed a layup with three seconds on the clock. NJIT's
Martina Matejcikova got the rebound, but there wasn't enough time for a last-second shot.
Albanese paced the Highlanders with 18 points, shooting 9-for-20 from the field, while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds and three steals. The three steals raises Albanese's career total to 128, three shy of the NJIT Division I record held by
Taiwo Oyelola (131; 2006-10), with three games remaining on 2015 schedule.
Sophomore Highlander
Leah Horton leads the team in scoring (10.1 ppg) and rebounds (7.0 rpg) while point guard Albanese is averaging 9.8 points and paces the Highlanders in assists (102) and steals (32). Center Nicole Matcika (7.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg) tops the team with 64 blocks (2.46 bpg), which ranks the senior tied for 28th in the nation.
Maryland Eastern Shore (10-14) will close out non-conference play on Tuesday when the Lady Hawks visit NJIT.
The Hawks were selected to finish 9
th out of 13 teams in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Preseason Coaches' Poll, after finishing the 2013-14 season with a 9-21 overall mark, 4-12 in the MEAC. Redshirt junior
Alexis Udoji was named to the All-MEAC Preseason third team. Last season, Udoji saw action in 28 games with 14 starts, leading the Lady Hawks with 48 total blocks.
Maryland Eastern Shore is coming off a 69-58 loss at South Carolina State on February 21 in the second meeting of the season between the two teams.
Senior guard
Jessica Long leads the Lady Hawks in three categories— scoring (13.7 ppg), assists (82) and steals (53). Udoji, the 6-foot-4 forward, ranks second on the team in scoring at 10.8 ppg and top the team in rebounding (8.6) and total blocks (44).
Fans can follow all the action live on www.njithighlanders.com, which will carry a live video stream and webcast play-by-play and commentary from
Michael Ventola, as well as an in-game real-time stat feed. Audio coverage begins at 6:45 pm with tip off set for 7 pm.
