 |
 Nesho Milosevic got his 7th double-double (21 pts, 13 rebs) |
Feb. 16, 2008
NEWARK, NJ - NJIT made a strong comeback, cutting a 15-point second-half deficit to three points with 2:34 left, but the Highlanders couldn't get any closer and fell to visiting Chicago State, 86-76, in men's basketball Senior Day Saturday evening in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
The Highlanders, who trailed by 15 when Chicago State's Christian Wall scored to make it 61-46 for the Cougars at 12:33, fought most of the way back over the next 10 minutes and closed the deficit to 74-71 on a Justin Garris three-pointer with 2:34 left.
But Chicago State responded with eight straight points, including six-for-six shooting at the foul line, over the next 1:58 to seal the victory.
The Highlanders defense was a mixed bag, as they again did a solid job defending Chicago State star David Holston, the nation's ninth-leading scorer with an average of 23.2 ppg.
With NJIT freshmen Jheryl Wilson and Justin Garris drawing the man-to-man defensive assignment, the Highlanders prevented Holston from dominating the game as he has done against other teams. Holston had scored seven in the Cougars' 79-62 win over NJIT on January 19 in Chicago.
The explosive junior finished with 15 points on Saturday, but eight of them came in a 1:27 stretch early in the second half. Otherwise, he was relatively quiet.
Chicago State's top scorers on Saturday were junior John Cantrell and freshman Christian Wall with 23 points apiece.
Cantrell's effort was not a surprise, as he came in averaging 15 ppg and had scored a team-high 17 against NJIT in Chicago. He also made a game-high four steals on Saturday.
Wall, however, was a surprise, coming off the bench for 23 points on 9-for-10 shooting from the field and 4-for-5 shooting at the line. He came into Newark averaging 3.2 ppg and had gone scoreless in 13 minutes as a starter in the first meeting between the teams.
Freshman forward Carl Montgomery posted a double-double for the Cougars, finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Tawrence Walton came up just short of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
NJIT, which scored its single-game season high with the 76 points against Chicago State, got 21 points and a game-high 13 rebounds from Nesho Milosevic.
The double-double for Milosevic was his second in the last two games and his third in the last five games. He has seven double-doubles on the season.
However, with the Chicago State lead down to three, the Highlanders fired from the perimeter and did not get the ball inside to their high scorer Milosevic. His only touch down the stretch came on a tip-in with 27 seconds left.
The tip-in came after four straight NJIT misses from the field --three on three-point tries--and two points on three free throws awarded on another three-point try over the preceding 2:07. In that span, the Cougar lead ballooned from three with 2:34 left to as many as 11 with 36 seconds to play.
Wilson, the Highlander freshman, contributed 15 points along with his stellar defensive effort against Holston and Garris added 13 points.
Four Highlanders were honored in pre-game senior ceremonies. They were: captain Kraig Peters, Kyle Edwards, Courcy Magnus and Brett Johnson, who has missed the entire season due to injury. The other three seniors started.
Edwards, who has made his greatest contributions over the last six games, fell just short of a double-double with nine points and a personal season-high nine rebounds. He reached his career scoring high with 16 points three games ago against Longwood and his nine rebounds Saturday were one shy of his career-best 10, which he reached twice at the Division II level. Edwards is averaging 6.3 rebounds in his six-game resurgence. He also won the opening tip for the fourth time.
Peters added nine points and eight rebounds, while Magnus, who is fighting flu-like symptoms, got the start, but played only six minutes.
NJIT, which completed the home portion of its 2007-08 schedule, will visit Longwood in Farmville, VA, on Monday night and then close the season next Saturday afternoon at Utah Valley.
