Box Score

OREM, Utah – With the game tied, 69-69, Houston Baptist senior guard Michael Moss muscled in a layup, drew a foul and completed the 3-point play with 2.7 seconds left to lift the seventh-seeded Huskies to a 72-70 upset over second-seeded NJIT in the quarterfinals of the Great West Conference Tournament Thursday afternoon at the UCCU Center.

Moss hit 10-of-14 from the field to lead the Huskies (5-25) with a career-high 26 points to go with eight rebounds and six assists. He also had three steals to tie HBU's single-season record at 84 and give him a streak of 31 straight games with at least one steal dating back to last season. Senior guard Andrew Gonzalez scored 14 points, pulled down eight boards and dished out five assists. Off the bench, junior forward Terry Bembry added 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while senior guard Shawn Echols scored 11 points – all in the first half. Echols was knocked out of the Huskies' season finale in the first half and did not return after trying to draw a charge, but was the catalyst offensively in the early going.

Jheryl Wilson led NJIT (15-15) with 18 points to go with eight rebounds, while Arjun Ohri hit 4-of-6 3-pointers to finish with 16 off the Highlanders' bench. Lamar Kearse hit 3-of-3 from long range – all in the first half – and scored 13 points, while Isaiah Wilkerson made 7-of-11 from the foul line and finished with 12 points.  

Moss tied the game at 65 on a jumper with 3:40 remaining and hit another on the following possession to give HBU a two-point lead. P.J. Miller tied the game on a driving layup with 1:51 remaining, but Gonzalez answered with a floater off the glass. Wilkerson hit a pair of free throws with 42 seconds left to tie the game, 69-69. HBU ran the clock down to 18 seconds before calling a timeout. After the timeout, Gonzalez misfired on a 20-foot jumper, but NJIT knocked the rebound out of bounds on the baseline with four seconds left to set up the game-winning inbounds play to Moss.

The Huskies fouled Wilkerson at mid-court before he could attempt to tie the game with a three. Wilkerson hit the first, intentionally missed the second, and Wilson grabbed the offensive rebound on the left baseline. Wilson's attempted putback fell well short and HBU grabbed the ball as time expired.

“It was just one of our standard plays that we run and it has three or four options off of it and it just so happened that option number one came open and Mike (Moss) did a great job of not only getting them up in the air, but powering through it and getting the finish,” head coach Ron Cottrell said. “That was big for us to be in a position to foul them in the backcourt and, hopefully -- almost assuredly -- win it because of the free throws on the other end. Sure enough we gave up an offensive rebound on the miss (second free throw), which was not in the plan, for sure.”

HBU shot 43.3 percent from the field for the game, but only 28.6 percent (4-for-14) from 3-point range. NJIT shot 43.1 percent for the game, but only 30 percent in the second half, and only 1-of-5 from long range after hitting 50 percent from behind the arc in the first half. The Huskies made the most of their trips to the free throw line, hitting 16-of-19, while the Highlanders made only 17-of-27. HBU dominated NJIT on the glass, 39-29, including 12 offensive rebounds.

Sophomore forward Lamar Thomas hit a jumper and Moss followed with a pair of free throws to quickly tie the game in the opening minute of the second half. A pair of Gonzalez free throws with 14:10 left gave the Huskies their first lead, 47-46, since midway through the first half. HBU held NJIT without a field goal for the first 7:45, but the Highlanders stayed close by going to the free-throw line. NJIT broke a 53-53 tie by scoring seven of the next eight points, before Bembry hit a turnaround jumper to cut the lead to 60-56. The Huskies scored five straight after a fastbreak layup by Moss to make it a one-point game, 64-63, with 4:38 to play.

In the first half, HBU went on a 12-0 run on back-to-back 3-point plays from Gonzalez and Echols and three-straight baskets by Bembry to take a 17-10 lead. After a 3-pointer by freshman guard Jonathan Evans, NJIT answered with a 10-0 run to take a 22-20 lead with 9:06 remaining. Three straight threes, one by Ohri and two by Kearse, gave the Highlanders a 38-26 lead – the largest by either team in the game – with 4:39 to go, but Echols hit a three and a pair of free throws to get the Huskies back to within seven. A spinning up-and-under layup by Bembry cut the deficit to three with 1:41 remaining, but Ohri nailed another trey and NJIT took a 43-39 lead into halftime.

Echols hit a pair of 3-pointers to lead the Huskies with 11 points, while Wilson and Ohri had 13 points and Kearse had 11 for the Highlanders at the break. HBU shot 45.2 percent from the field, including 36.4 percent (4-for-11) from behind the arc in the half, while NJIT shot 51.6 percent from the field and 50 percent (8-of-16) from long range.