Box score

NEWARK, NJ—University of Pennsylvania sophomore Patrick Lucas-Perry, an unexpected hero, broke a 49-49 tie on a 3-pointer with 2:12 left and hit both ends of a one-and-one 40 seconds later, giving the Quakers the points they would need to hold off NJIT, 54-53, Thursday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Penn, which snapped an eight-game losing streak, posted its 1,700th all-time win, becoming the 11th program in NCAA Division I  history to reach that plateau.

Top scorers for the Quakers Thursday were freshman center Darien Nelson-Henry and junior guard Miles Cartwright, with 12 points apiece. Nelson-Henry notched a double-double, posting a career-high 11 rebounds in the win for Penn (3-13), while Cartwright took game assists honors, with five. Lucas-Perry finished with eight points, including the crucial five.
 
NJIT, which saw the end of its season-best three-game winning streak, dropped to 9-9, despite a game-high 22 points—15 in the second half--from senior Chris Flores, who also tied his own NJIT Division I program record with six steals. Senior Ryan Woods and sophomore Daquan Holiday each added 10 points (the highest career total for Holiday vs. a Division I opponent), but the rest of the team aside from Flores, Woods, and Holiday combined for just 11 points.
 
Some team stats jumped out from the final box score, including the fact that Penn, which had been outrebounded by an average of nearly six rebounds per game and had only won the battle of the boards four times in its first 15 games, dominated the rebounding against NJIT, 41-24. The dominance was all the more noteworthy since the Highlanders came in at +3.5 in rebound margin.

In addition to the 6-foot-11 Nelson-Henry's game-high 11 rebounds for Penn, Cartwright, a 6-foot-3 guard, came down with nine boards. Holiday was the NJIT leader with seven rebounds and the active sophomore also made a career-high four steals. Penn enjoyed a 15-7 edge in second-chance points.
 
On the plus side for NJIT, the Highlanders forced a program Division I-high 26 turnovers and committed only 12 themselves. The result was a 25-13 advantage in points off of turnovers, including 18-7 in the hectic second half.
 
The decisive run for the Quakers came after NJIT, which has staged some remarkable rallies all season,surged for 10 unanswered points in just over two minutes, tying the score at 49-49 when Flores hit the first of two free throws with 2:30 left. That foul shot capped the 10-0 Highlander run that came after they fell behind 49-39 on a triple for Penn's Dau Jok with 4:39 on the clock.
 
With the Highlanders having drawn even at 49 points apiece, Lucas-Perry, who did not appear in the first half Thursday and would play a total of nine minutes in the game, provided the heroics with five straight points. The sophomore scored a career-high 15 points in Penn's season-opening win over UMBC, but he had topped four points in a game just once (9 vs. Delaware) in 14 games since the opener.

The fact that Lucas-Perry could make a 3-pointer should not have been a surprise, however, as he came in shooting 13-for-25 from downtown and had made a trey earlier in the game. Given an open look, he made it 52-49 for the visitors with 2:12 remaining.
 
NJIT misfired twice on 3-point shots in the next possession and Lucas-Perry, who is a slender 5-foot-11, came down with the defensive rebound on the second Highlander miss. Fouled on the rebound and having attempted a total of six free throws all season, Lucas-Perry, who had to make the first free throw to earn the second, calmly sank both tries for a 54-49 lead at the 1:32 mark.
 
However, Lucas-Perry's points would be the last of the night for Penn and NJIT inched closer when Holiday made two foul shots with 1:03 left and Flores canned two more with 45.8 seconds left to bring the Highlanders within a point at 54-53.
 
With 24 seconds remaining on the game clock and 14 on the shot clock, Penn coach Jerome Allen used his final timeout to call a play and the Quakers ended up getting an open 3-point try for Steve Rennard, whose shot rimmed out and was rebounded by NJIT's senior guard PJ Miller.
 
Miller pushed the ball ahead and crossed the midcourt stripe with eight seconds left. Driving down the lane, the senior left the floor near the foul line and got to the rim, attempting a finger roll layup. But the shot would not go down and caromed back into the crowded lane. The rebound was tipped several times before NJIT's Ky Howard finally gained control, but it was too late, as the final buzzer sounded before anyone could get a second shot.

Penn led at the half, 27-22, after holding NJIT to 19 percent shooting (5-for-26) from the field. The Quakers scored the game's first eight points and they later led, 11-1, and by a game-high 11 (13-2)  on a Cartwright layup with 14:24 left in the opening half.

NJIT, which got its first field goal, a Flores 3-pointer, on the next possession, eventually took its first lead of the game on Holiday's put-back layup with 3:37 remaining in the half. The Highlanders later led 20-19 on two Odera Nweke foul shots with 2:31 left, but Penn closed the half with an 8-2 run, keyed by back-to-back Nelson-Henry layups, a Cartwright layup and a Tony Hicks jump shot.

Penn's Cartwright netted 10 points to lead all scorers at the break, followed by eight from Nelson-Henry. Flores (7 points) topped NJIT.
 
Next up for the Highlanders is the first of a two-game season series against Division I Independent New Orleans Monday at 7 pm (CST) in the Crescent City. The teams have never met before, but New Orleans will play NJIT a second time, in Newark, on February 23.