EASTON, PA—Lafayette rarely trailed Sunday afternoon against NJIT, but the Leopards had to make 11 free throws in the closing 51 seconds to fend off the visiting Highlanders, 76-71, in men's basketball at Lafayette's Kirby Sports Center.
 
Eight of the clutch late free throws came from Lafayette's sophomore point guard Nick Lindner, whose 10 points and 8 assists in the game helped his team to its eighth win in 11 tries overall and extended the Leopards' home record to 5-0.
 
Lindner was one of four double-figure scorers for the victorious Leopards, who were paced by 18 points and a game-high 8 rebounds for 6-foot-8 senior Seth Henrichs, who is listed as a guard and shoots like a good one. Henrichs added a game-high 4 steals.
 
Lafayette also got 17 points from 6-foot-9 senior forward Dan Trist and 11 points from senior guard Joey Ptasinski, as well as the 10 from the orchestrator, Lindner.
 
NJIT (5-9) lost despite a game-high 24 points from sophomore Damon Lynn and a strong, aggressive game from his classmate Tim Coleman, who scored a personal season-high 14 points and added a team-leading 7 rebounds, Coleman's best rebound total game of the season, as well.
 
Ky Howard rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11 points to go with 6 rebounds. Winfield Willis scored 9 points and made 3 steals to share the NJIT lead with Lynn.
 
Lafayette led for 35:39 of the 40-minute game, it was tied for 1:24, and the Highlanders were on top for just 2:57.
 
NJIT, which was tied at the beginning and end of the first half, led only briefly in the opening period and trailed for the entire second half. However, the Highlanders had the answer to stay close most of the day.
 
When Lafayette built a 31-24 lead with 2:29 left in the opening half after a Trist foul line jump shot, the Highlanders used a quick 56-second 7-0 rally to forge a 31-31 tie.
 
Coleman made a steal to set up a 3-point basket for Lynn, then Lynn scored on a fast-break layup, and Coleman made another steal and drove for another fast-break layup before Trist's layup on the other end with 21 seconds left in the half staked the home team to a 33-31 advantage at the break.
 
The pattern of spurts by Lafayette followed by in-kind NJIT spurts continued in the second half. The Leopards scored the first two baskets out of the break for a 38-31 lead when Zach Rufer drilled a 3-pointer with 18:47 left.
 
But Howard drove for a layup and then Coleman made two more layups, the second trimming the deficit to 38-37 barely two minutes after the Rufer triple.
 
Lafayette answered that spurt with a 7-0 run, capped by what would be Lindner's only basket and only points until his last-minute free throws. Lindner's basket at 14:48 gave the Leopards a 45-37 lead.
 
NJIT answered again with a 6-0 run finished by Vlad Shustov's dunk that pulled the Highlanders back to 45-43 at the 13:21 mark.
 
However, NJIT was not shooting particularly well—the Highlanders would finish 1-for-11 on 3-pointers in the second half and 5-for-26 (19.2 percent) from distance for the game, their lowest long-range percentage of the season. That and little scoring productivity inside with the exception of Coleman, subjected NJIT's offense to the brief spurts it showed to keep the score close, but never a rally that could get the lead.
 
A 3-for-9 shooting spell, plus a turnover by the Highlanders opened the door for Lafayette to take its biggest lead of the day, 61-50, when Henrichs hit a jump shot with 7:35 left.
 
Lindner's brilliant 8-for-8 last-minute foul shooting for Lafayette was not unexpected, as he came into the game having made 31-of-34 free throws through the first 10 games. Indeed, Lafayette's team performance at the foul line—20-for-23 (87 percent) was not out of line with its .751 free throw accuracy (145-of-193) coming into the test against NJIT.
 
That kind of ability to shoot free throws makes coming back against Lafayette extremely difficult late in a close game. Yet that's what NJIT (5-9) tried to do.
 
Trailing by double-digits for the first time, NJIT would spend the rest of the game trying to chip away, a task that took on added difficulty with Lafayette missing just two foul shots in the second half and only three in the game.
 
With all that, NJIT, which was 13-for-16 (81.3 percent) at the line itself in the second half, chipped away and got the deficit to two points five different times in the last 3:05.
 
Four of the two-point deficits came in the last 42 seconds, all on scores by Lynn, who was scoreless for nearly 17 minutes in the second half before pouring in nine of his team's 12 points over the last 3:05.
 
Each time the Highlanders pulled to within two down the stretch, Lafayette answered—a Trist jump shot; two Lindner free throws; two more Lindner free throws; and two Hinrichs free throws to thwart the late comeback bid by the visitors.
 
NJIT, which had a five-day break from the game at Villanova on December 23 to the game Sunday at Lafayette, began a stretch of three games-in-six days with the trip to Lafayette. The Highlanders will host Saint Francis University from Pennsylvania on Tuesday at 7 pm in the Fleisher Athletic Center and then travel to Maryland for a game at UMBC on January 2.
 
The home game on Tuesday vs. Saint Francis will be the first in Newark for the Highlanders since they hosted St. Francis Brooklyn back on December 9.