Box score
HOUSTON, TX—Senior center Mario Flaherty had a career night, scoring 30 points to go with 11 rebounds for Houston Baptist in a 75-62 over visiting NJIT Saturday night in Great West Conference men’s basketball.
Flaherty, in his second season at HBU after transferring from junior college last season, posted new career highs for points and free throws made. His previous scoring high was 23 against New Orleans earlier this season. And his 16 made free throws against NJIT doubled his old high of eight, which he had done twice. Saturday night marked his fourth double-double of the season.
The victorious Huskies, who opened Great West Conference play two nights earlier with a 66-56 home win over Chicago State, got 14 points from junior forward Andrew Gonzalez and 11 points out of senior guard Wendell Preadom against the Highlanders, who are 0-2 in conference play.
With Flaherty shooting 16-for-20 and Gonzalez missing just once in nine tries, HBU was 31-for-39 (79.5 percent) as a team from the foul line. NJIT also shot foul shots well (78.3 percent), but had 16 fewer attempts than the home team. Indeed, the difference in free throws made—13 (31-18)—was identical to the final overall scoring margin.
NJIT got 20 points from freshman Chris Flores, who shot 10-for-12 on free throws himself. The Highlanders also received 13 points from sophomore Isaiah Wilkerson and 10 from junior Jheryl Wilson.
Center Dan Stonkus, who played the strongest game of his knee surgery-delayed senior season Thursday at Texas-Pan American, gave a strong effort again in Houston, pulling down a team-leading six rebounds before becoming one of three Highlanders to foul out of the game.
NJIT led early, with three different four-point leads in the opening minutes, but Houston Baptist went on a 10-1 run to turn a 10-6 deficit at 16:05 into a 16-11 lead at 12:24.
The Highlanders, who showed grit all night, came back and claimed what would be their final lead of the evening, 19-17, when Wilson made a three-pointer just past the midway point of the first half.
There would be two more ties, the latest at 23-23, when Teddy Schickel, who scored six first-half points, made a layup for NJIT with 4:31 remaining.
Gonzalez then hit the first of two free throws, Damian Lewis banked a short shot from the lane and Michael Moss hit a pull-up jumper to give HBU a 28-23 lead. The teams each added two more points to their total for the half and the Huskies went to the locker room with a 30-25 advantage, paced by Flaherty’s 11 points and six rebounds.
Houston Baptist then used a Flaherty-powered 12-3 advantage in the first 5:38 after the intermission to extend its lead to 42-28. Ten of the 12 points were scored by Flaherty.
However, NJIT, down by 14 with 14:22 remaining, was not done, trimming the deficit to 44-40 with 12 points in the next three minutes.
Threatened, the Huskies played their ace card, going back to Flaherty, who scored six points in an 11-2 spurt in 2:35 that pushed the Houston Baptist lead back to 13, 55-42, on Fred Hinnenkamp’s jump shot with 8:19 left.
NJIT got back within single-digits on five separate occasions the rest of the way, but the Highlanders never got closer than eight points before falling back to the final score of 75-62.
The Highlanders have a welcome week ahead to regroup following a grueling stretch that has seen them play nine out of their previous 10 games away from home.
Now, NJIT will play its next three at home, with one week breaks between each contest. The football-like slate opens with the Highlanders hosting Chicago State in the second part of a Great West Conference doubleheader on Saturday, January 23, at 4 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center. As always in the Great West, the men’s game will be preceded by a game between the women’s teams of the two schools.
The Chicago State men, who flip-flopped opponents with NJIT this weekend, also went 0-2 in the Texas leg of their Great West Conference schedule.