Box Score
 
PROVIDENCE, RI—Sophie Bikofsky hit the game-winning basket with 3.5 seconds remaining on the clock, breaking a 51-51 tie, as Brown defeated visiting NJIT, 53-51, at the Pizzitola Sports Center on a rare mid-morning women's basketball contest on Education Day.
 
Brown set up the game-winning play with five seconds left on the clock.  Out of the timeout, Bikofsky curled off a screen and hedged out to the three-point line on the right side, scoring the game-winner just inside the three-point arc, with 3.5 seconds remaining on the clock.
 
In the final seconds, NJIT's Kimberly Dweck put up a 30-foot jump shot, but came up short, which allowed Brown to prevail in a 53-51 victory.
 
In the first meeting between the two teams in 2010-11, the Highlanders won 63-61, on a last second layup with 2.8 seconds left by Jessica Gerald.
 
Last season the game was determined by four points, as Dweck was fouled in the act of attempting a long 3-point shot with 1.2 seconds remaining and the score tied at 66.  Dweck broke the tie on her first free throw before Brown coach Jean Marie Burr walked onto the floor and drew a technical foul for protesting the whistle on Dweck's deep 3-point try.  NJIT won the contest 70-66.
 
Brown improves to 6-8 on the season after dropping its previous two contests, while the Highlanders, who were coming off a 60-55 Great West Conference victory over Texas-Pan American on Saturday, fall to 8-12 on the season.
 
The Bears were led by junior Lauren Clarke's team-high 15 points as the 5-foot-6 guard finished 3-of-4 from behind the arc and dished out a game-high three assists. 
 
Sophomore guard Bikofsky finished with 10 points and seven rebounds while Caroline King came off the bench for eight points and nine rebounds.  King finished 4-of-6 from the field in 30 minutes off the bench for the Bears.
 
The Highlanders were led by senior Rayven Johnson, who registered her 10^th double-double of the season (21^st of her career), scoring 14 of her game-high 21 points in the second half while grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds.  Johnson went seven of nine from the free throw line.
 
Sophomore point guard Alyssa Albanese, coming off a career-best 18 points and five rebounds against Texas-Pan American on Saturday, added nine points while Uju Nwankwo and Melanie Griffin finished with eight and seven points, respectively.
 
The first five minutes of action was close, with Brown holding an early two-point lead, 7-5.  NJIT's Albanese knotted the contest at 7-7 with a running layup down the paint just under the 15-minute mark.
 
The game saw two more ties, the last at 11-11, before the Bears took a three-point lead, 14-11, on a three-pointer from the top of the key by Clarke with the shot clock winding down.
 
NJIT answered on the other end on a layup by Nwankwo, at the 10:50 mark, as the Highlanders athletic forward, scored the last four points for the visitors, for a 14-13 score. 
 
Both teams went scoreless over the next three minutes until Brown's King finished an old fashioned three-point play sparking a 6-0 run for the Bears for a 20-13 score, with 6:10 remaining.
 
The Highlanders went cold for 4:45 until Johnson knocked down one of two from the free throw line at the 5:45 mark.  Sophomore Denisa Domiterova cut the lead to four, 20-16, just under the 5-minute mark, with a short jumper in the paint.
 
Brown's Clarke gave the Bears their largest lead of the first half, 23-16, after knocking down a three-pointer at the 4:39 mark.  NJIT rallied back to score the next four points, slimming the lead to three, 23-20, after consecutive layups by Griffin and Johnson.
 
The Bears' Nelly Weledji scored her first points of the half to give Brown a five-point lead, 25-20, with 3:04 left to go, but that would be the last the home team would score, as the Highlanders finished the first half on a 6-0 spurt to take a one-point lead heading into the locker room, 26-25.
 
Brown's Clarke led the first 20 minutes with nine points on 3-of-3 shooting from behind the arc, while Nwankwo led the Highlanders with eight points and Johnson added seven points and six rebounds.
 
NJIT started off the second half on a 9-2 run extending the lead to 35-27 after a three-point play by Albanese at the 16:31 mark.  Johnson scored four points in the spurt for the visitors.
 
Brown, which had scored in the opening 35 seconds of the period, was held scoreless until the 16:02 mark, when Natalie Ball knocked down a long two-pointer to spark a 6-0 run for the home team that cut the Highlander lead, which was as many as eight in the opening minutes, to two, 35-33, at the 13:38 mark.
 
Both team traded baskets over the next two minutes as Brown pulled within one of NJIT, 39-38, on one of two free throws made by Ball.  Brown regained possession off the missed free throw and took its first lead of the second half on a three-pointer by Bikofsky at the 10:37 mark for a 41-39 lead.
 
Domiterova knotted the contest at 41 at the 8:41 mark with a running floater in the paint but the Bears responded on the other end as King knocked down a shot from the baseline at 8:12 and Ball followed up with a shot of her own for a 45-41 lead with seven remaining.
 
Johnson brought the Highlanders back to within two, 45-43, finishing a tough layup at 6:30.  Brown's Clarke sank two free throws from the charity strip giving Brown a four-point cushion, 47-43 with 5:07 remaining.
 
Bikofsky widened the Bear lead to five, knocking down a pair of free throws of her own out of the four-minute media, 49-43. 
 
The Bears held NJIT scoreless from the 6:30 mark to the 2:11 mark after a pair of free throws made by Johnson.  Griffin sank a long jumper from the left side in front of the NJIT bench, as the Highlanders fought back after being down six, for a 49-47 score with 1:40 remaining.
 
Brown's Clarke stepped up to the free throw line with 1:19 and hit one of two. Ball chased down the rebound and put the ball back in the hands of the team's best free throw shooter, Clarke, with 49 seconds left on the clock.  Clarke hit one of two to give the Bears a four-point lead, 51-47.
 
NJIT's Johnson scored quickly, hitting a jumper in the paint with 36 seconds to play and pulling the score to 51-49, Brown.  NJIT first-year head coach Steve Lanpher called a 30-second timeout to strategize the NJIT defense. 
 
The Highlanders press in the backcourt worked as Johnson came up with a steal at mid-court and was determined to score driving down the right side of the lane, but she was fouled with 18.7 seconds. 
 
Brown took a 30-second timeout to freeze the senior, but Johnson stepped up to the free throw line and sank both for game's sixth tie at 51-51.
 
NJIT will return to action on Saturday when the Highlanders visit Great West Conference opponent Chicago State at 7:30pm (CT).