NEWARK, NJ—Visiting Rhode Island overcame a 10-point second-half deficit in a 57-51 comeback women's basketball win against NJIT Saturday afternoon in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

It took the Rams just over four minutes to erase NJIT's 10-point lead, but the outcome remained in doubt until URI's Ashley Rivera hit a three-pointer with 17 seconds left, stretching her team's lead from 54-51 to 57-51.

Rivera, a small guard at 5-foot-4, was the biggest force on the floor in the second half, scoring all 14 of her points for the game after the halftime break. She shot 5-for-7 from the field, including makes on all four of her three-point tries. Her 14 second-half points were close the NJIT team total of 18 points over the final 20 minutes.

Senior guard Megan Shoniker's 19 points for the game paced Rhode Island (2-1), while junior forward Lara Gaspar added 14 points and a game-high 9 rebounds.

NJIT (0-3) lost despite a game-high 20 points from senior guard Jessica Gerald. Sophomore Rayven Johnson scored 13 points and collected 7 rebounds. Another sophomore, Maria Sanchez, came off the Highlanders bench for a team-best 8 rebounds, matching her career high.

The Highlanders, leading for most of the first half, took what would be their biggest lead of the day after a pair of Gerald free throws made it 33-19 with 4:18 left in the half. However, Shoniker and Gaspar scored four points apiece for the Rams while NJIT shot 0-for-4 and committed two turnovers and URI closed the score to 33-27 at halftime.

NJIT's Gerald had 15 points at the break, while Shoniker had 12 and Gaspar had 10 points and 7 rebounds for Rhode Island in the opening half.

The Highlanders recovered the momentum to open the second half and went up 42-32 on a jump shot by Ivana Seric with 15:12 left. But the visitors answered with a 15-2 run over the next 5:29. Along the way, URI took the lead, 45-44, on a three-pointer by Rivera with exactly 11 minutes remaining.

The Rams never relinquished the lead, but they never went ahead by more than six points, reaching that margin at the 4:41 mark and again at the 3:30 mark before NJIT made a final small surge.

Rayven Johnson made the second of two free throws at 3:18, trimming the Rhode Island lead to five and then after three empty trips (two by URI), Johnson was fouled on an offensive rebound and she made both free throws to pull NJIT to within three, 54-51, with 1:21 left.

Each team had another scoreless possession before Rivera's fourth three of the game made it a two-possession game with 17 seconds to play.

One of the decisive differences between the teams was consistent shooting from half to half. The Rams, who shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, shot 44 percent in the second half and 47 percent for the game. NJIT, which made 48 percent of its first-half tries (13-27) got the same number of attempts in the second half, but connected on just 19 percent (5-27), which contributed the Highlanders being outscored, 30-18, in the half. NJIT made 33 percent of its shots overall.

The Highlanders will host Delaware State on Wednesday at 7 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.