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CHICAGO—NJIT defeated top-seeded regular season champion Utah Valley in a wire-to-wire 52-42 win Saturday for the championship of the 2013 Great West Conference women's basketball tournament held at the Emil and Patricia A. Jones Convocation Center on the campus of Chicago State University.
 
NJIT's first-team all-conference senior Rayven Johnson was named tournament Most Valuable Player after leading all players on both teams with 20 points and 18 rebounds. Johnson's 18 rebounds were the most for an NJIT player in the program's Division I era, which began in 2006-07.

Head Coach Steve Lanpher commented on senior guard Johnsons' play in the tournament, “I have never seen her have two off days. She didn't play particularly well yesterday but I knew Ray would come and get it done today.”

Another Highlander honored by the Great West for her play during the regular season came up big in the championship win, as well. Junior forward Uju Nwankwo, co-Defensive Player of the Year in the GWC, drew the lion's share of the task of defending Utah Valley's two-time GWC Player of the Year Sammie Jensen and Uju and the rest of the Highladers' 'D' came up big, holding the talented Jensen to just five points—nearly 13 below her season average of 17.9 ppg-- on just 2-for-13 shooting from the field.

"Uju showed why she was co-Defensive Player of the Year in the conference.  She did a phenomenal job on a very good post player Jensen." Lanpher added.

Indeed, UVU, the highest scoring team in the Great West during the season and through to Saturday's championship game (63.7 ppg), made just 10 field goals as a team against NJIT Saturday and connected on just 20 percent of its shots from the field (10-for-50).
 
Aside from Johnson's game-high 20 points, NJIT got 12 from sophomore Sarah Olson, whose 16 points the day before topped the Highlanders in their 52-42 semifinal win over Texas-Pan American.  Nwankwo, coupled her stellar defense with 11 rebounds for the Highlanders.
 
With their star, Jensen, being held far below her scoring average, the Wolverine points leaders in the GWC championship game were Taylor Huber  (12 points) and Kaycee Mansfield (11 points). Jensen's 12 rebounds topped UVU in that category, while Huber added seven boards.
 
Utah Valley, which posted a 7-1 record in the conference regular season and then coasted to a win over Houston Baptist Friday in the GWC tournament semifinal, finishes its season with a 15-15 record overall. NJIT is 16-15 for its first winning record and highest wins total in the Division I era (began 2006-07). Only the 2004-05 team (18 wins) and the 2005-06 team (17 wins in the program's final Division II season) have won more.
 
The Wolverines came into the championship game having won five in a row and eight of the last nine since sustaining their only conference loss in Newark against NJIT on January 26, a 49-46 win for the Highlanders. However, the eight-of-nine closing run included a convincing 64-47 win over the Highlanders on February 9 at UVU.
 
Likewise, NJIT (seeded second with a 6-2 conference regular mark) was hot coming into the championship, having won four in a row and seven of eight before extending those runs with the title win against Utah Valley.
 
Steve Lanpher, in his first season as head coach at NJIT, has emphasized defense from day one and he has said on several occasions down the stretch that his team was playing its best basketball, especially on defense.

His emphasis on defense and observation of his team's recent play proved to be spot-on with the way the Highlanders shut down Utah Valley for NJIT's first women's basketball championship at any level (NCAA Division I, Division II, or Division III, the first season of which was 1986-87).

“I'm really proud of this team. It's very difficult taking over a program when you have four seniors (Johnson, Melanie Griffin, Kimberly Dweck and Jelena Zoric) – hats off to them. They bought in from day one with a lot of hard work and communication.  As you can see today, it wasn't always pretty. But they won through togetherness, effort and defensively we were tremendous.” Lanpher stated.

The Highlanders got off to a quick start in the opening 3:30, scoring the first six points of the contest.  Utah Valley tacked on its first points of the game on a pair of free throws by Kaycee Mansfield at the 17:05 mark.
 
NJIT senior Griffin knocked down a three-pointer at the 16:27 mark,  giving the second-seeded Highlanders a 9-2 advantage.  Neither team would score over the next two minutes until Utah Valley's Cydne Gray sparked a 6-0 spurt, pulling UVU within one of NJIT, 9-8, with 12:30 left to go.
 
The Highlanders answered the Wolverine run, scoring the next consecutive eight points, started by Griffin's second three-pointer of the game, as NJIT went ahead by 10, 18-8, at the 12:25 mark.
 
Utah Valley broke the ice on a three-pointer by Taylor Huber but the Highlanders answered with a jumper by Nicole Maticka on the next possession down the floor, for a 20-11 score, with six minutes left.
 
In the final five minutes of the first half, Utah Valley cut the deficit down to five, 22-17, finishing on a 6-2 run, and holding the Highlanders to just two points.
 
NJIT started the second half knocking down its first two shots increasing the Highlander lead to nine, 26-17, at the 17:50 mark.  Utah Valley scored the next four points, cutting the lead back down to five, 26-21, after a three-pointer by Huber, with 17:30 remaining.
 
A three-pointer by NJIT's Olson gave the Highlanders an eight-point cushion, 29-21, but the Wolverines went on an 8-3 run over the next 3:15, trimming the NJIT lead down to three on two different occasions, the second with 12 minutes left to play, 34-31, after a jumper by Whitney Jenkins.
 
NJIT pushed its lead up to seven after a 6-2 run that gave the Highlanders a 40-33 lead with nine minutes remaining in the contest.  Sophomore guard Alyssa Albanese scored four points for NJIT.
 
The Highlanders took its first double-digit lead in the second half at 45-35 after an old-fashioned three-point play by Johnson at the 4:21 mark.  Utah Valley cut the lead down to six twice more, the first at 3:43 and then again with 50 seconds left on a jumper by Jenkins, for a 48-42 score. 

But NJIT held on, scoring the final four points of the contest and upsetting No. 1 Utah Valley, 52-42.


2013 Great West Conference All-Tournament Team
Rayven Johnson - NJIT
Sarah Olson - NJIT
Shanice Steenholdt - HBU
Kaycee Mansfield - UVU
Sammie Jensen - UVU

Tournament MVP - Rayven Johnson