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HEMPSTEAD, NY—On several occasions this season, NJIT men's basketball coach Jim Engles has warned his young team that it can't afford lulls, especially to open a game or half, and that it needs to play near its best for the full 40 minutes in order to win.

On Monday night the young Highlanders (6-10) again got to see the consequences of a slow start, as they had a subpar first half, falling behind by 12 at the break, and then mounted a strong second half push, only to fade from the effort of getting close and lose, 75-64, to Hofstra in the Mack Sports Complex.
 
Hofstra (4-8) dominated early, going ahead of NJIT 9-0 in the first 2:09. The Highlanders, coming off a season-low 48 points at Butler in a 66-48 defeat Saturday afternoon, continued to struggle on offense and trailed 16-6 more than eight minutes in.
 
Down by a game-high 16 points with 6:28 left in the first half, the Highlanders began to click a bit late in the first half and sliced the deficit to 7 at 32-25 on a Damon Lynn 3-pointer with 1:35 left in the opening half.
 
But finishing the late possessions of the first half has been problematic for the Highlanders recently and they allowed a 3-pointer to Hofstra's Chris Jenkins 13 seconds after the Lynn triple and then turned the ball over with 6 seconds left in the half, setting up another Pride bucket ahead of the buzzer, which allowed the halftime score to reach 37-25.
 
NJIT opened the second half with an 8-2 burst and later closed to within a single point of the lead, 59-58, on a Damon Lynn 3-pointer with 4:32 remaining. However, Hofstra's Dion Nesmith answered with a triple of his own from the top of the key 16 seconds later.
 
The Pride managed just one field goal after Nesmith's shot from downtown at the 4:16 mark. But Hofstra had enough left to secure the win by making 11-of-14 free throws over the final 3:41.
 
So, for all its work to get within a point of the lead with over four minutes to play, the ditch, dug in the opening minutes of the game, was too deep for the Highlanders. That left Engles to remind his team that their second-half rally would have meant more if they hadn't fallen so far behind in the first place.

Nesmith, who is using his final year of playing eligibility with Hofstra after graduating from Monmouth in 2013, scored 20 points to lead four double-figure scorers for the Pride.
 
Zeke Upshaw, who played for and graduated from Illinois State in 2013, added 15 points and also pulled down 7 rebounds for the winners. Upshaw scored 8 of his points in the first half, leading all scorers through the first 20 minutes.
 
Hofstra also got 12 points from freshman Chris Jenkins, who, like NJIT freshman Damon Lynn, is from Hillside, NJ. Jenkins came off the bench to hit four 3-pointers. Another freshman, Jamall Robinson, scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high 8 rebounds, leading Hofstra to a decided 39-27 team advantage in that vital category.
 
NJIT had just one double-figure scorer, Lynn, the star freshman guard, who scored 20 points and hit a new season-high 6 baskets from long distance (he previously had three games with five 3-pointers).
 
In addition to being Lynn's personal best from downtown, it tied the program Division I individual record for threes against a DI opponent. There had been seven previous such games with six 3-pointers, including three games last year, all by Ryan Woods (Class of 2013).
 
Chris Flores (Class of 2013) made 7 in a game last year, but it was against Fisher, which competes in the small-college National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Only records accomplished against other NCAA Division I teams are included as school "Division I records".
 
Lynn, who had five 20-point efforts in his first eight college games, got back to the 20-point plateau for the first time in nearly a month and a stretch of seven games going to back to December 1, when he nailed 24 at home against UAlbany.
 
With Lynn back on his early-season shooting form, another factor in NJIT's ability to play better in the second half was the contribution of starters Terrence Smith and Ky Howard, who are among several people around the team dealing with flu-like symptoms.
 
They started the game, but exited within the first five minutes and did not return for the rest of the half. They re-entered as second-half starters and Smith played 19 of the 20 second-half minutes and Howard played 18. Smith had all 9 of his points and 6 of his team-high 7 rebounds in the second half and Howard, who was effective driving to the basket, had 7 of his 9 total points in the second half.
 
With Smith, who is far-and-away NJIT's most effective scorer near the rim, doing his thing and Howard driving through traffic for layups, the Highlanders outscored Hofstra in the paint, 18-8, in the second half, flipping Hofstra's 18-8 first-half lead in the same stat.
 
Howard and Smith were two of three Highlanders to finish with 9 points, as they were joined by Winfield Willis. Nigel Sydnor got all 7 of his points for NJIT in the opening half.
 
Hofstra, shooting under 30 percent on 3-pointers as a team in its first 6 home games, shot 10-for-22 (45.5 percent) Monday night against the Highlanders, including 6-for-10 in the second half, a stat that proved crucial in surviving NJIT's forays in the last 20 minutes.
 
NJIT trailed by as many as 14 in the second half, 48-34, following a Robinson three with 13:57 left. And Hofstra carried a 10-point advantage midway through the final period.
 
However, the Highlanders closed to within 5 on two Smith free throws that made it, 57-52, with 6:21 left and two Lynn triples in a span of 12 seconds got the Highlanders within a point.
 
Despite never getting over the hump, NJIT still trailed by just 3, 64-61, when Willis scored an old-school 3-point play at 3:28. But Hofstra closed out 11-3 the rest of the way.
 
The Highlanders, who have been playing an NBA-like schedule lately, with three games since December 23, will take a break for New Year's. They will return to action on Saturday afternoon, January 4, at 2 o'clock at Saint Francis U in Loretto, PA.