Box Score

HEMPSTEAD, NY—Senior Uju Nwankwo scored a game-leading and personal career-high 22 points in her final game for NJIT. But Hofstra pulled away with a late rally for a 77-68 victory over the visiting Highlanders in women's basketball Saturday afternoon at the Mack Sports Complex.

The Highlanders, who came into the contest on a three-game win streak finished the 2013-14 season with a 8-21 overall mark, while Hofstra won its third straight game to cap the regular season with a .500 overall record at 14-14. The Pride have earned the fifth seed in next week's Colonial Athletic Association Tournament, where they will face Drexel.

Nwankwo, the Highlanders' 6-foot forward, scored 12 of her 22 points in the first half and finished the game shooting 7-for-9 from the field and 8-of-12 from the free throw line. Nwankwo finishes her four-year career as the NJIT DI leader in blocked shots with 179. Her 737 career rebounds total ranks her second all-time in NJIT's Division I era, which began with the 2006-07 season, and she finishes with 806 career points.

Junior guard Alyssa Albanese was the other double-figure scorer for the Highlanders Saturday with 16 points, while Alana Dudley and Martina Matejcikova each notched nine points. Albanese dished out four assists, raising her overall assist mark to 234 with one season left to play. Her 115 assists this season are a new program record in the DI era.

Graduate student Shakia Robinson added six points and six rebounds for NJIT, closing out her college career with 1,009 points. Robinson, who played her first three seasons at UMass, used her final season of eligibility with the Highlanders after graduating from UMass in 2013.

Hofstra had four players in double-figures in the victory, paced by sophomore guard Asia Jackson's team-high 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, 2-for-2 from behind the arc and a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line.

Sophomore Ruth Sherrill came off the bench to score 13, while forwards Anma Onyeuku and Elo Ederferioka added 11 points each for Hofstra. Ederferioka set a new career mark, grabbing a game-high 17 rebounds, which surpassed the 14 she complied against College of Charleston on January 17.

Nwankwo scored eight of NJIT's first nine points in the opening five minutes, helping the Highlanders to an early 9-5 lead.

Just under the 12-minute media mark, the visiting Highlanders held a three-point advantage, 13-10, after back-to-back baskets by Matejcikova, the junior forward. Hofstra's Alexis Carter sank a pair of free throws for a one-point game, 13-12, but the Highlanders answered on the opposite end as Robinson hit a pair of her own, putting NJIT ahead by three, 15-12.

The Pride used an 8-0 run sparked by an old-fashioned three-point play from Jackson for Hofstra's second lead of the contest, 24-20, at the 6:27 mark.

NJIT tied the game for the fourth time on a short 4-0 run after Nwankwo sank a pair of free throws with 5:44 remaining. Hofstra's Jackson broke the tie knocking down a three-pointer from the top of the key for a 27-24 lead at the 5:19 mark. NJIT's Alana Dudley closed the Pride gap by sinking four consecutive free throws pulling the visitors within one, 29-28 with 4:08 left to play in the opening 20 minutes.

The game saw two more ties in the final 3:08, the last at 39-39 with 6.5 seconds left on the clock, when NJIT's Albanese made a pair of free throws just before the teams headed to their locker rooms

NJIT's Nwankwo and Hofstra's Jackson led the first half with 12 points apiece, while Elo Edeferioka paced the first half with eight rebounds.

To open the second half, the score see-sawed back and in the first four minutes, with the Highlanders holding a three-point lead, 49-46, at the 16-minute mark.

Hofstra used a 13-0 run to go up by 10 points, 59-49. The Highlanders, who missed eight consecutive field goal tries, were held scoreless for a six-minute stretch until a baseline jumper by Albanese at the 9:35 mark trimmed the deficit to eight, 59-51. Albanese's jumper sparked a 6-0 run over the next 1:31, getting NJIT back within four, 59-55, with 8:04 on the clock.

After a three-pointer by Hofstra's Krystal Luciano, NJIT's Albanese scored four consecutive points and then an old-fashioned three-point play by Nwankwo tied the game at 62 with 5:37 left.

Having seen a 10-point advantage disappear in just under four minutes, the Pride ran off an 11-0 spurt of its own over the next 2:38 – nine of the 11 points coming from the free throw line, to take a 73-62 advantage with three minutes left to play.

Having erased one double-digit deficit, NJIT was faced with a similar hole and less time left on the clock, ultimately not enough time, to do something about it.

The Highlanders cut the lead to seven on two occasions – the first out of an NJIT timeout, 73-66, after a three-pointer by Albanese at 1:52 and the final with 30 seconds on the final career points for NJIT's Robinson.

But that was as close as the Highlanders could get before the final horn sounded on the 2013-14 season.