NEWARK, NJ—Visiting Lehigh gained the upper hand against NJIT late in the first half and then kept the Highlanders at arm's length in the second half of a 65-54 women's basketball win for the Mountain Hawks Thursday night in the Prudential Center.

Lehigh got a game-high 22 points from sharp-shooting junior guard Alex Ross, who shot 6-for-12 on three-point attempts, accounting for all but one of her team's seven treys in the game. The 22 points were two shy of Ross' career-high 24, which she scored against NJIT last December 8 in Bethlehem, PA.

Thursday night's win was the seventh in 10 starts for the Mountain Hawks, whose only losses come in road games at Saint Joseph's in Philadelphia, at Syracuse and at Villanova.

Junior Taiwo Oyelola scored 17 points and sophomore Jessica Gerald added 16 for the Highlanders (2-6).

NJIT opened the game well, grabbing a 7-3 lead on Gerald's layup 2:33 into the contest, but Lehigh came back and the teams were locked in a tight contest that saw seven lead changes and four ties in the first 13 minutes of the first half.

Lehigh senior Haly Crites put her team on top for good, breaking a 19-19 tie on a jump shot with 7:34 left.

The Highlanders managed only four points the rest of the half, but they stayed close for a long time. Ross made a three-pointer for a 26-21 Lehigh lead with 5:31 left, but that was the only scoring for either team between the 6:27 and 3:46 marks, when Alexa Williams hit a pair of free throws for the Mountain Hawks.

Williams' two free throws triggered an 8-2 push by the visitors over the last four minutes, expanding their halftime advantage to 34-23. Ross led all scorers with 13 points and Lehigh connected on 60 percent of its shots from the field (12-20) in the half.

NJIT began the second half with energy, but Lehigh was equal to the challenge and the Mountain Hawks claimed a 15-point lead, 41-26, on a jump shot by Tricia Smith with 17:39 on the clock.

The Highlanders responded with the first of two sustained second-half surges, scoring seven straight points on a layup by Gerald, a three by Jill Dickinson and a layup by Kehinde Oyelola that close the deficit to 41-33 with 15:57 left.

NJIT later surged to within six, 43-37, after a pair of Taiwo Oyelola free throws with 11:02 remaining, but the Highlanders could not closer and fell back into a double-digit deficit during an 8-0 Lehigh spurt over the ensuing 3:07.

A look at the final stats revealed strong Lehigh advantages in three areas—rebounding, second-chance points and bench scoring.

The Mountain Hawks outrebounded the Highlanders, 42-23, overall. Tied to that, Lehigh had a 16-4 advantage in second-chance points and the bench scoring favored the visitors, 22-8.

NJIT celebrated Alumnae Night on Thursday, recognizing 20 former NJIT women's basketball players at halftime of Thursday's game.

The Highlanders are off until after Christmas, resuming action on December 29 and 30 in the Saint Peter's College Holiday Classic in nearby Jersey City. NJIT will take on Hofstra on the 29th and William & Mary on the 30th. Both games begin at 5 pm.