NJIT HIGHLIGHTS (VIDEO)


(STATEN ISLAND, NY) – Sophomore Zach Cooks scored a team-high 22 points and led a tremendous second-half surge to guide the Highlanders past Wagner College, 71-60, on Tuesday at the Spiro Sports Center.
 
NJIT (5-1) has started 2-0 on the road this season and bounced back after their first loss of the season three days earlier against Cornell. The 5-1 start is the Highlanders' best start since a Division-III NJIT team started 6-0 in 1994-95. Meanwhile, reigning NEC regular-season champion Wagner dropped to 2-3.
 
Cooks was coming off a career-high 25 points on Saturday; but on Tuesday, he found his team trailing 31-25 at the half. More frustrating, the Highlanders were shooting just 36-percent from the floor at the half. Matters did not get much better early in the second half.
 
However, the game took an about-face at the 11:53 mark of the second half – and Cooks' classmate Shawndale Jones played a significant supporting role.
 
With NJIT trailing, 45-38, the sophomore Jones buried a three-pointer that lit an inferno. NJIT went on an 11-0 run, holding Wagner scoreless for 3:53 to take a lead it would not relinquish. Jones canned another triple during the run and junior Shyquan Gibbs added six points of his own in the span -- including two free-throws to tie the game followed by a layup to put NJIT ahead for good.

The Highlanders continued to build the buffer after taking the 49-45 lead, extending the game-ending run to 33-15 over the final dozen minutes.

Senior Diandre Wilson finished with 17 points while Gibbs netted 13. Jones provided seven points and a team-high six rebounds.

Cooks, who entered the game sixth in the nation in steals added a career-high-tying five thefts and a couple of rebounds in playing all 40 minutes for the second-consecutive game.

Despite the slow start, NJIT shot 52-percent (11-for-21) from the floor in the second half to pull to 44-percent for the game. And after shooting just 7-for-16 (.438) from the line in the first session, the Highlanders rebounded for a much more acceptable 21-for-26 (.808) after the break.

After a one-game hiccup, the Highlanders defense was back in full force. NJIT induced a season-high 21 turnovers while holding the Seahawks to 29.8-percent (17-for-57) from the floor for the game. The strangle hold was more evident in the second half, when Wagner converted just 8-of-30 attempts (.267).

The victory marked the 100th for the Highlanders since third-year Head Coach Brian Kennedy joined NJIT as a top assistant to Jim Engles in 2012-13 -- during which time the program is 100-93 (.518).

The Highlanders are back to action after Thanksgiving with a road contest at LIU Brooklyn (3-1) on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Steinberg Wellness Center.