NEWARK, NJ—Lehigh outscored NJIT, 8-2, over the final 3:43 Wednesday night, securing a 53-45 win over the Highlanders in non-conference women's basketball in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

The Mountain Hawks, who are the two-time defending champion of the Patriot League, notched their fifth straight win and lifted their season mark to 6-5 with the late-push victory over the Highlanders.

Seniors Erica Prosser and Courtney Dentler shared the scoring lead for Lehigh, with 13 points apiece. Dentler whose eight points in the second half paced the Mountain Hawks after the halftime break, got four of them in the decisive game-closing run.

NJIT had closed to 45-43 on a jump shot by Rayven Johnson with 3:43 left, but Dentler scored the game's next four points on two free throws at 3:13 and a layup at 2:32.

Melanie Griffin scored for the Highlanders at 1:23, making it 49-45, but Lehigh finished off the win with four free throws in the last 37 seconds.

NJIT had a trio of double-figure scorers, led by a game-high 14 points from the junior Griffin. Two sophomores, Kimberly Dweck and Johnson, added 10 points apiece for the Highlanders.

The Highlanders, who had been beaten on the boards in all seven of their previous games, outrebounded Lehigh, 40-32.  NJIT sophomore Maria Sanchez led the way with a game-high 10 rebounds, which were also her career high. Her previous high was 8, which she did last year against Harvard and earlier this season against Rhode Island. Johnson pulled down 7 rebounds and Griffin grabbed a career-best 6 for the Highlanders.

For Lehigh, Dentler was the top rebounder (9), while Prosser had a game-high 5 assists.

NJIT led early, scoring the game's first four points and later taking what would be its biggest lead of the night, 10-4, on a Dweck jumper with 14:10 left in the first half.

Lehigh came back and finally claimed its first lead, 15-14, after a pair of Prosser free throws with 7:30 left in the half. Those two points were part of a 10-0 Mountain Hawk run that turned a 14-10 deficit into a 20-14 lead between 7:56 and 4:44.

The Highlanders swung the momentum back in their direction and a three-pointer by Griffin with 10 seconds left in the period put the score at 27-25 for Lehigh at the half. Prosser had 12 of her points in the first half, while Griffin's 7 paced the Highlanders.

Lehigh never trailed in the second half, although NJIT's Griffin pulled her team to within a point, at 31-30 on a trey with 13:47 left and the Highlanders later tied the score at 40 on a Johnson jump shot with 6:28 remaining.

The Mountain Hawks, who had led by as many as seven points on two occasions near the midpoint of the second half, actually held their largest lead of the night—eight points—when the final buzzer sounded.

The Highlanders, now 1-7, will break from competition for 10 days due to final exams. NJIT returns to action on December 19 at 2 pm (CST), when the Highlanders visit the Missouri Tigers. That game will mark the first intercollegiate athletic competition of any kind for NJIT against a team from the powerful Big 12 Conference.