Jan. 10, 2007

Box Score

NEWARK, NJ - Senior guard Clayton Barker scored 13 points, leading the best-balanced offensive effort of the season for New Jersey Institute of Technology in its 59-55 win over visiting Longwood in men's college basketball Wednesday night.

Barker was one of four starters to reach double figures scoring and the fifth, freshman center Dan Stonkus, barely missed joining the club for the Highlanders, who had just missed the win column in a couple of recent games, before breaking through on Wednesday for their third win in their first season competing against a schedule of NCAA Division I opponents.

In addition to Barker, NJIT got 11 points from Kraig Peters and 10 points apiece from Andrew Engel and Nesho Milosevic. Stonkus finished with 9 points, but he was the top scorer in the second half for the Highlanders, netting 7 points over the final 20 minutes. In the first half, Barker, Engel and Milosevic all collected 8 points for NJIT.

The Highlanders, who finished the game with a slim 40-38 rebounding advantage, got 8 rebounds each from Peters and Marc Milbourne Swan. Stonkus blocked a team season-high 5 shots. Barker had a team-leading 5 assists.

Longwood, which, like NJIT, is reclassifying to NCAA Division I got a game-high 25 points from senior swingman Maurice Sumter, who scored 10 in the first half and 15 in the second. Forward Clayton Morgan led the Lancers on the boards, pulling down 8 rebounds, while junior point guard Brandon Giles handed out a game-high 7 assists.

Longwood opened the scoring with a three-point basket for Husein Pistoljevic with 19:22 left in the first half, but NJIT scored the next seven points--five by Engel--and the Highlanders led for the rest of the game.

They held a 32-23 halftime lead on the strength on 50 percent field goal shooting, including 50 percent shooting from three-point distance, as they were 13-26 on all field goal attempts and 6-for-12 from outside the arc.

The Highlanders, who did not attempt a foul shot in the first half, helped themselves secure the victory by connecting on 10 of 12 second-half free throws.

It was the second straight outstanding effort at the line for NJIT, which had struggled at times from the line through its first 14 games, but which shot 21 of 27 in Sunday's loss at Cornell before connecting on 83 percent of its attempts in the win over Longwood.

The Highlanders' biggest lead of the game was 14, 48-34, on a three-pointer by Peters with 9:05 left in the game.

The four-point difference at the final buzzer was the closest Longwood got since falling behind, 10-5, after Peters' three-point basket 3:34 into the contest.

NJIT, which has maintained a fighting spirit throughout its first 16 games this season, was rewarded with a win on Wednesday after a couple of tantalizing recent defeats before and after New Year's Day. On December 30, the Highlanders lost, 70-66, to James Madison in a game in which they attempted, but missed, a potential go-ahead three-point shot with less than four seconds left. Then, on January 2 at home, they battled 10-5 Navy to a standstill until the final four seconds of overtime in a 52-50 Midshipmen win.

Having secured their second home win of the season, the Highlanders will not see the inside of the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center for anything but practice for nearly a month. They will play their next five games on the road and will not have another home game until February 8, when they host South Dakota State.

The five-game, nearly month-long stretch of road games begins on Saturday at 4 pm in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, when NJIT visits IPFW.