Box Score

DOVER, DE—Not a lot went the way NJIT, which never led in regulation, wanted for the first 40 minutes in Monday night's men's basketball game at Delaware State.
 
But enough went right for the Highlanders to reach overtime and that was all they needed to come up with a 65-59 comeback victory.

NJIT took its first lead of the night on two free throws by Tim Coleman 12 seconds into the extra period and the Highlanders went on to a notch a 65-59 overtime win by outscoring the home team 16-10 in the extra session.
 
The fifth road win of the season upped NJIT's overall record to 9-13, as the Highlanders completed a stretch that saw them play eight of their nine games since December 23 outside of Newark.
 
By winning on the road for the fifth time, NJIT matches a program high for away wins in a season vs. Division I competition (since 2006-07). The 2010-11 Highlanders went 5-9 on the road to set the mark that was tied Monday night.
 
The Delaware State Hornets, 4-15 overall, lost their fifth in a row at the same time the Highlanders halted a three-game slide.
 
NJIT had five double-figure scorers in the win, topped by 19 off the bench from Jake Duncan, who made five 3-pointers, including one in the final minute of regulation that gave his team its first tie of the night, forcing regulation.
 
The 19 points were one shy of Duncan's career-best 20 points, done two Mondays earlier at home against Division III CCNY, and the 19 more than doubled the freshman's high against a Division I opponent (9 at Army on November 15, 2013)
 
Sophomore Ky Howard added 13, with 11 in the second half after he was held to two points in the opening half.
 
Damon Lynn, who had made a combined 16 3-pointers in his previous two games, had a difficult shooting night at DSU, but still managed 12 points, including his only trey late in overtime that all but sealed NJIT's comeback win, sending much of the crowd to the exits on a 61-55 Highlander lead with 19 seconds left in the game.
 
Tim Coleman, another freshman, came off the bench for 10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks. And sophomore Terrence Smith just missed out on a double-double, with 11 points and 9 rebounds, plus a huge block near the end of regulation that preserved the tie and helped send the game into overtime.
 
Kendall Gray, Delaware State's 6-foot-10 junior center had a double-double, with 14 points and 12 rebounds to go with four blocked shots. Senior Casey Walker came off the DSU bench for 13 points and sophomore Nick Doyle added 10 points for the Hornets.
 
NJIT surrendered the game's first six points and trailed all the way until the last 29 seconds of regulation when Duncan hit his fifth 3-pointer of the night to tie the score at 49-49.
 
Duncan's clutch bucket from downtown capped a comeback that saw the Highlanders erase a 7-point deficit with 1:31 remaining in regulation after Walker had made the second of two free throws to put the Hornets on top, 47-40.
 
NJIT, which had struggled mightily to score all night and made just 11 its first 47 shots (23.4 percent), outscored the home team 9-2 in the remaining 91 ticks to force the extra session.
 
The tying rally began with a bucket from the right baseline for Coleman. Delaware State's Doyle answered by making one of two free throws for a six-point Hornet lead with 1:02 left in regulation.
 
Howard, who had attempted just four threes all year for the Highlanders (made two), nailed a big triple with 57 seconds left to get NJIT within three points of the lead.
 
Doyle again went 1-for-2 at the line for a 49-45 Hornet lead and Howard made the first of two free throws on the next possession, putting NJIT in position to tie with another 3-pointer. Duncan did just that, knotting the score at 49 apiece
 
The Hornets later worked the ball up the floor and got it into the low blocks to their 6-foot-10 center Gray, whose attempt at a dunk was blocked cleanly by NJIT's Smith, who is 6-6, and then Howard came away with the ball. Each team missed a shot after that and the game went to overtime.
 
Once there, the Highlanders, who never led during regulation, opened with five unanswered points in the first 1:12 of overtime and they led the rest of the way to the final buzzer

Damon Lynn, who came in ranked fourth nationally with 3.9 3-point field goals made per game, missed his first 12 tries from distance Monday. At least half of his misses were good looks that appeared on-target, only to rim back out, instead of dropping through the cylinder. But the rookie's 13th try, all net from deep at the top of the key, helped clinch the come-from behind win.
 
NJIT won despite shooting that saw the Highlanders go 6-for-25 in the first half and 7-for-24 in the second half before making four of their five shots from the field in overtime. A strong night at the foul line (23-for-29; 79.3 percent) helped NJIT get over the finish line.
 
Delaware State shot 18-for-42 (42.9 percent) in the loss, including 5-for-17 (29.4 percent) in the second half aiming at the basket that had been so unkind to the Highlanders in the opening half.
 
The Hornets took their biggest lead of the night at 26-15 on Doyle's jump shot with two minutes left in a first half that DSU led 28-20 when the buzzer sounded to signal halftime. Gray had 9 points and 7 rebounds to lead in both categories at the break, while Duncan's 9 points on 3-for-3 shooting from downtown paced the Highlanders.
 
The home team extended its lead quickly, going up 30-20 on a pair of Tyshawn Bell free throws 1:38 into the second half. But NJIT answered with a 5-0 run and eventually got to within two, 34-32, after Duncan made two foul shots with 9:19 on the clock.
 
Five quick DSU points stretched the gap back to seven points and NJIT kept plugging, despite shooting woes that made the comeback effort seem painfully slow until Howard's three, a Howard foul shot and the Duncan three pulled the Highlanders level with DSU.
 
NJIT won't have long to savor its come-from-behind road win. The Highlanders will get right back into the fray with a 7 pm home game Wednesday in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center against Duquesne, which will become the first team ever from the highly-regarded Atlantic 10 Conference (ranked as the 7th-best conference in the Sagarin Ratings used by USA Today) to visit the NJIT campus for a men's basketball game.
 
Duquesne is 9-9, but is just two games removed from a down-to-the-wire 76-72 loss to fellow A-10 member Saint Louis, which won its 12th in a row and is ranked #19 in the national Associated Press poll.