Feb. 9, 2008

EDINBURG, TX - Texas-Pan American needed a buzzer-beating three-point basket to take a one-point halftime lead, but the Broncs exploded for 54 second-half points and defeated visiting NJIT, 90-64, in a Division I Independent men's basketball game Saturday night.

UTPA, now 15-13, honored six departing seniors in pre-game ceremonies and three of them scored in double figures against NJIT, led by point guard Paul Stoll, who finished with 19 points and six assists. Eleven of his points came at the foul line, where he connected on 11 of 12 tries.

Senior guard Brian Burrell, whose three-point shot at the halftime buzzer lifted the Broncs to a 36-35 lead, scored 16 points and added a team-leading six rebounds. Zach Trader scored 11, giving the home team three senior double-figure scorers among its starters.

Junior Emmanuel Jones came off the Texas-Pan American bench for 14 points. He scored eight critical first-half points and then added to the momentum of Burrell's first half-ending trey by slamming home an emphatic dunk off a lob pass from Stoll in the halfcourt offense eight seconds into the second half.

Junior forward Nesho Milosevic and freshman guard Justin Garris shared team scoring honors for NJIT with 13 points apiece. Garris' 13 points matched his career high, previously reached against Rider on November 28.

Milosevic grabbed a game-high eight rebounds to lead NJIT, which had a 32-29 edge in team rebounding.

Milosevic and Garris were the only double-figure scorers, but Kraig Peters and Kyle Edwards added nine points each and Courcy Magnus picked up eight points.

Facing Texas-Pan American for the third time this season, NJIT played what was likely its best first half of the season with a strong opening 20 minutes Saturday night.

The Highlanders, who have had difficulty keeping up when their opponents open early leads, not only kept up when Texas-Pan Am went up, 18-10, with 11:07 left in the first half, but NJIT fought back and twice took five-point leads. The first was on a layup by Peters with 6:19 left in the half and the latest was at 4:03 on a pair of made free throws by Jheryl Wilson that put the Highlanders on top, 30-25.

NJIT could not its stretch its lead, but the Highlanders stayed on top for all of the final 7:35 of the first half until Burrell drained his three-point basket just ahead of the first-half buzzer.

The Highlanders, unfortunate to be trailing after 20 minutes, shot well on three-pointers (4-8) and at the foul line (9-11), while outrebounding the Broncs, 21-13, and holding them to 11-for-28 shooting (39 percent) from the field.

Burrell of Texas-Pan Am had 12 points to lead all scorers at halftime. NJIT's halftime scoring leader was Garris (9 points), but he was one of seven Highlanders who broke into the scoring column in the opening half.

Especially important were Magnus, who made both of his three-point attempts and had seven points, and Edwards, who continued his recent resurgence. Edwards, who scored a career-high 16 points five days earlier against Longwood and who had a combined 21 rebounds in the previous three games, chipped in five points and a team-leading four first-half rebounds vs. the Broncs before going back to the bench with his third foul.

He, in turn, had come on for Milosevic, who started strong with four points and three rebounds in the first 3:42 before being sidelined for the rest of the half after getting his second personal foul.

Starting with Jones' slam off a set play to open the half, UTPA scored the first three points of the second half for a four-point lead in the opening minute, but NJIT traded blows for couple of more minutes before the Broncs took their first double-digit lead, 53-42, on a short Nathan Hawkins jump shot with 13:20 left.

NJIT's Edwards trimmed the deficit back to nine 11 seconds later, but a Trader jump shot pushed the lead back to double-figures for good at 12:56 and sparked a 7-0 spurt in 2:25 that eventually made the score 60-44 after a Hawkins free throw with 10:31 remaining.

After that, Texas-Pan American outscored the Highlanders, 30-20, but it was really the minutes that came before that told the story.

NJIT, despite playing a strong first half that included good shooting and alert, selfless passing , needed a relatively low scoring pace, having topped the 70-point mark one time in the first 24 games.

In the end, the Highlanders simply weren't able to keep up with Texas-Pan Am's spectacular second-half sharpshooting.

Here are the Broncs' field goal shooting numbers at the second-half media timeouts: at the 16-minute media timeout--5-6 (83 percent); at the 12-minute timeout--10-13 (77 percent); at the eight-minute timeout--14-17 (82 percent); and, at the four-minute timeout--16-21 (76 percent).

Indeed, at the 12-minute media timeout (actually at 11:17), NJIT had made three of its five shots from the field, a decent percentage. But the Highlanders were undermined by five turnovers and 2-for-7 shooting at the foul line. By then, UTPA, with its 10-for-13 shooting from the field and no second-half turnovers to that point, had outscored NJIT 23-9, pushing the one-point halftime margin to 15 points near the midway point of the second half.

By the end of the half, Texas-Pan Am had shot 19-for-30 from the field (63 percent) to finish the game at 52 percent (30-58), while shooting 4-for-6 on three-pointers and 12-for-16 at the line over the last 20 minutes.

Saturday's game marked the extraordinary third meeting between NJIT and Texas-Pan American this regular season. The first time was on December 31 in the consolation game of the UCF Holiday Classic, hosted by Central Florida in Orlando. UTPA won that one, 76-61. On January 26 at the Prudential Center, the teams played a low scoring grind-it-out game, also won by the Broncs, 54-42.

Next up for the Highlanders is a visit to Philadelphia, where they will take on La Salle on Wednesday at 7 pm.