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 Peters records career-high 26 points |
Feb. 18, 2008
FARMVILLE, VA - NJIT senior captain Kraig Peters scored a game-high and personal career-high 26 points, but Longwood defeated the visiting Highlanders, 96-78, in men's basketball Monday night.
Peters, who raised his career scoring total to 1,161 points, good for 15th on NJIT's career list, made six three-point baskets against Longwood, two shy of the NJIT single-game record.
Clarence Pierce made eight threes twice, once in 1994 and once in 1995, when NJIT competed at the NCAA Division III level. The most threes in a Division II game was five and the Division I record (since 2006-07) had been four.
Peters, who had scored 21 points against Rutgers in December and 21 against Utah Valley in early February for his previous Division I scoring highs, set his new career mark by surpassing the 23 points he scored against Mansfield (PA) at the Division II level in 2005.
As a team, the Highlanders' 78 points on Monday were a new season high and they matched the school record for Division I competition set nearly a year to the day on the same floor, when NJIT defeated Longwood, 78-74, on February 19, 2007.
NJIT, which had difficulty scoring for much of the season, has scored at least 64 points in each of its six February games, setting new season highs in its last two games, starting with 76 points two days earlier against Chicago State and then 78 at Longwood on Monday.
In addition to Peters, the Highlanders got 16 points and a game-high 14 rebounds from Nesho Milosevic, who posted his third consecutive double-double and his fourth double-double this month.
Milosevic got 11 of his rebounds in the second half, as NJIT bounced back from a 26-14 first-half deficit on the boards to outrebound the home team, 28-20, in the second half to finish the game with 42 rebounds to 46 for the Lancers.
The third double-figure scorer for NJIT was freshman guard Jheryl Wilson, who came off the bench for 13 points and a team-leading three assists. Freshman forward Paulius Skema also did well, coming off the bench to match his career highs with 9 points and 6 rebounds.
For its part, Longwood had five double-figure scorers, paced by junior Ryan Bogan, who netted 21 points. Senior Lamar Barrett scored 18, sophomore Kevin Swecker added 17, junior Kirk Williams collected 16 points and sophomore Billy Robinson, Jr., finished with 13.
Barrett, a versatile 6-foot-6 forward, led the Lancers with eight rebounds and shared the team assists lead with five. Point guard Brandon Giles also had five assists.
Trailing at the half, 42-34, NJIT put 44 points on the board in the second half, but Longwood was nearly unstoppable, putting up 54 points after the break. The Lancers made 60 percent of their overall shots from the field (18-30), but were especially devastating from three-point range, shooting 9-for-13 from behind the arc in the second half.
Swecker finished the game 5-for-6 on treys--with four coming in the second half--and Bogan was 4-for-6 in the game.
NJIT got on the board first, but Longwood went ahead big after that, pulling out to a 12-2 lead on Barrett's layup with 14:17 left in the first half.
But Peters took over, pouring in 16 points in just over six minutes from 14:07 to the eight-minute mark to bring the Highlanders back to within a point of the lead, 24-23.
NJIT never quite got over the hump, but it was still a five-point game, 37-32, when Wilson, the freshman guard, hit a three with 3:26 left.
Longwood outscored NJIT, 5-2, the rest of the way for a 42-34 halftime lead. Peters finished the half with 16 points and Barrett's 12 points paced Longwood.
The Lancers scored the first two buckets of the second half for 46-34 lead, but NJIT fought back to within four points, 49-45, after Milosevic made two free throws with 15:05 left.
Longwood's Bogan answered 15 seconds later with the first of nine Longwood three-pointer in the half. Later. A Giles three-pointer gave Longwood its first double-digit lead of the second half, 58-48, with 13:45 left.
NJIT got the deficit back down to nine, 60-51, when Justin Garris hit a three with 12:17 left, but the Lancers responded with a basket of their own 23 seconds later, pushing their lead back to double digits for what would become the rest of the game.
The Highlanders will bring the 2007-08 season to a close on Saturday with a 2 pm (MST) game at Utah Valley in Orem, UT.
