Box Score

PRINCESS ANNE, MD—Of Damon Lynn's game-high 27 points for NJIT, none were bigger than his last two, a pair of free throws he made in a one-and-one spot with 2.3 seconds remaining, lifting the Highlanders past Maryland Eastern Shore, 77-76, in men's basketball Wednesday night in the William P. Hytche Center on the UMES campus.

Troy Snyder had converted his fourth, and Maryland Eastern Shore's sixth, traditional 3-point play of the night with 5.7 seconds left to put UMES up 76-75 for the Hawks' first lead of the night.

Maryland Eastern Shore coach Frankie Allen then used a timeout to set up his defense, which no doubt included an emphasis on containing Lynn, who had shot 7-for-11 from 3-point distance on the night. Still, the Highlanders got the ball inbounds to Lynn, who raced up the right sideline and was fouled on an attempted force-out on the boundary by Louis Bell.

Going to the line, the Highlander rookie calmly made both foul shots, putting NJIT back on top 3.4 seconds after it had fallen behind for the first time.

With two lead changes already in the final six seconds, the action was not over. First, Snyder, who would have been the hero if UMES won with his team-leading 24 points, including the go-ahead 3-point play and grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds, stepped over and back at the baseline while attempting to inbound the ball against NJIT defensive pressure following the two decisive Lynn free throws.

With possession awarded to the Highlanders after the Snyder miscue, Bell fouled NJIT's Jake Duncan before the Highlanders could get the ball inbounds and run off more time.

Duncan missed the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second on instructions from the bench, since a miss would allow the clock to start and require UMES to improvise a play and get off a shot in less than 2.3 seconds, The strategy worked when a heave from behind the midcourt stripe fell to earth well short and after the buzzer sounded.

The win, NJIT's third in a row, upped the Highlanders to 12-15 overall, including 6-10 on the road. The six wins away from home represent NJIT's most on the road since the program began NCAA Division I competition in 2006-07.

The most road wins in the Division I era previously had been five, when the 2009-10 Highlanders finished 5-9 on the road. Even in winning the 2012-13 Great West Conference regular season title and a program DI-best 16 wins overall last season, the Highlanders were just 4-9 in away games.

Wednesday's defeat dropped the Hawks to 4-20 overall, as NJIT won for the first time in three tries all-time vs. the Hawks (UMES won both ends of a home-and-home between the teams in the 2009-10 season).

Lynn had an exceptional shooting night for the Highlanders, connecting on 8-of-13 field goal attempts, including the 7-for-11 on 3-pointers, plus 4-for-5 at the foul line.

The seven 3-pointers pushed Lynn's school-record season total in that category to 102 and the seven threes vs. UMES are his second-highest total in a game, topped only by the school-record nine he made at North Carolina A&T back on January 18.

His 27 points on Wednesday equaled his second-highest total in a game, which he first achieved at Army on November 15. The 27 points are second only to his program Division I-record 34 points in the game at North Carolina A&T last month.

Terrence Smith was NJIT's other double-figure scorer at Maryland Eastern Shore, with 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the field. Smith who came in tied for seventh in Division I in field goal percentage (60.7 percent) is 35-for-44 (79.5 percent) over the last six games.

In addition, sophomore point guard Ky Howard tied his career high in rebounds with a team-leading 10 to go with 7 points and 5 assists, raising his season assists total to a team-leading 100.

Junior Odera Nweke, who was slowed early in the season by injury, added 8 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals The points matched his season high vs. a Division I opponent; the rebounds were his most against a DI team this season; and, the 3 steals tied the junior's career high.

In addition to Snyder's double-double that included 10-for-11 free throw shooting by the senior who came in shooting 61 percent (47-for-77) at the line, the Hawks got 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals off the bench from Devon Walker.

Walker, who was 5-for-8 on threes in the previous game against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference foe Morgan State, was 5-for-9 from distance against NJIT. Junior Isaac Smith III added 11 points off the UMES bench.

At the same time, KyRee Jones and Hakeem Baxter, who came in as the leading scorers this season for Maryland Eastern Shore at 14.7 points per game and 14 points per game, respectively, had minimal impact. Jones, a junior, managed 5 points against the Highlanders and Baxter, a freshman who missed the Morgan State game due to injury, made one basket in 15 minutes of action.

NJIT, which has been plagued by slow starts in the vast majority of games since mid-December, got out quickly against Maryland Eastern Shore, scoring the first four points and going up 10-4 when freshman Tim Coleman completed an old-school 3-point play just 3:37 into the contest.

The Highlanders took their biggest lead of the opening half, 13 points (29-16), when Coleman finished a fast break that began with a steal by Daquan Holiday and included an assist from Lynn 8:41 before halftime.

NJIT had two later 12-point leads and took a 40-29 advantage into the locker room after two Lynn free throws 12 seconds before intermission.

A Winfield Willis layup and 3-pointer sandwiched around a Walker three for UMES extended NJIT's advantage back to 13 points, 45-32, 77 seconds into the second half.

But NJIT's hopes of going ahead by a lot more would be undermined by poor second-half foul shooting that seemed to come from out of nowhere. A fine 73-percent foul shooting team through the first 26 games, the Highlanders were 5-for-6 at the line in Wednesday's first half.

However, they were a dismal 5-for-15 on second-half foul shots--3-for-11, including misses on the front end of two possible one-and-one opportunities, before Lynn made the pair of foul shots that rescued NJIT from its first deficit of the night with fewer than three ticks left.

With the Highlanders having trouble padding their lead at the foul line, Maryland Eastern Shore put up 47 second-half points. The Hawks generated four of their overall six traditional (basket-and-foul shot) 3-point plays in the second half.

Two of the old-school 3-point plays were scored by Ishaq Pitt in the second half and Snyder had two of them in each half. Indeed, he also had a miss on a free throw after he scoring on a driving layup in the late going. On top of that, six of the Hawks' 9 3-pointers for the game came in the second half.

NJIT had an 8-point lead, 70-62, after Nweke's tip-in with 4:29 left. But Snyder's traditional 3-point play trimmed the Highlander advantage to five and then another Snyder bucket made it a 3-point game, 70-67, with 3:19 left. Howard answered for NJIT, but Jones drained a 3-pointer from the right corner for his second basket of the night, cutting the score back to 72-70 with 2:12 left. Aminute later, Smith made the first of two foul shots, pulling UMES to within a point at the 1:12 mark.

Lynn let the Highlanders take a breath, giving them a 4-point edge on a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 35 seconds left. But Snyder drove for another layup and followed with his only miss from the line all night, leaving the Hawks down two with 17 seconds left.

However, NJIT opened the door a bit by missing the front end of a one-and-one with 15 seconds left, setting the stage for Snyder's layup and free throw that briefly got the Hawks their 76-75 lead, only to be denied with Lynn's two foul shots and the action that followed.

If not for those two big Lynn foul shots, NJIT would have faced the prospect of losing despite shooting 50 percent from the field (29-for-58); outrebounding UMES (41-35); getting 33 points in the paint to 24 for the Hawks; a 22-13 lead in points-off-turnovers; and, 11-5 on second-chance points.

Instead, the Highlanders got to write a happy ending, as they head home for the final games of the season. Next up is a visit from Fisher College from Boston. Fisher will visit the Highlanders on Saturday at 2 pm in the Fleisher Athletic Center. That game is part of Alumni Day, with a game for Highlander alumni slated to start at 11 am on Fleisher Family Court.