BALTIMORE—Ahead by only two points at halftime, visiting NJIT opened the second half with an 8-0 spurt in the first 1:45 and the Highlanders pulled away to a 70-55 men's basketball victory over UMBC in the RAC Arena Friday night.
 
Four of NJIT's five starters reached double-figure scoring Friday, topped by 20 points from sophomore guard Damon Lynn, who shot 8-for-16 from the field, including four 3-pointers. Tim Coleman and Baltimore native Winfield Willis each added 12 points for the Highlanders, who also got 10 points and a game-high 6 assists from Ky Howard.
 
NJIT, which beat Saint Francis U. on December 30 in Newark, has back-to-back victories for the second time this season. The first back-to-backs came when the Highlanders won at #17/#16 Michigan on December 6 and then came home to beat St. Francis Brooklyn on December 9.
 
The Highlanders, who thrived off of UMBC's 21 turnovers, won the points-off-turnovers category 23-6 and the visitors made 13 steals, with Lynn and Willis each swiping the ball 4 times and Coleman adding 3 steals.
 
The 4 steals for Willis were a new high in an NJIT uniform for the junior who is in his second season as a Highlander after playing his freshman year at Clarion (PA). Willis also led NJIT in rebounding against UMBC with 6, one shy of his best as a Highlander.
 
Howard and Coleman did most of their scoring damage in NJIT's big second half, with Howard netting all 10 of his total points for the game after the intermission and Coleman scoring 9 in the second half after scoring 3 in a first half.
UMBC (2-11) got 16 points from junior center Cody Joyce and 10 from freshman Malcolm Brent.
 
Graduate student Wayne Sparrow , who came in averaging a team-best 12.8 points per game and had scored a career-high 24 in UMBC's previous game against Lehigh, finished with 8 points against the Highlanders and all 8 came in the last 4:46 of the contest, by which time NJIT led, 54-39. The 8-point night snapped a stretch of four straight double-figure scoring games for the Baltimore product, who had played three seasons at Richmond before graduating in 2014 and is playing his final season as a UMBC grad student.
 
Although he had a tough night on offense, shooting 3-for-10 from the field and committing 9 turnovers, Sparrow took individual game rebounding honors with 10 for the Retrievers, who held a 34-27 advantage in total team rebounds.
 
The Highlanders, who finished the game shooting 50 percent (25-50) from the field, got there with a strong performance in the second half, when they hit on 16-of-28 shots after going 9-for-22 from the floor in the opening half. Compounding matters in the first half, NJIT made just two of its seven first-half foul shots. However, the Highlanders were 6-for-15 from 3-point distance in the first 20 minutes, a key element in their slim 26-24 lead at the break.
 
Lynn's 8 points led NJIT at the half, while UMBC's Joyce led all scorers at halftime with 9 points. He made four of his five shots in the first half and the junior finished 7-for-8 from the floor on the way to his team-best 16 points.
 
The visitors set the tone quickly to begin the second half; Lynn made a jump shot in the lane on the opening possession and Coleman stole the ball from Sparrow and finished the play with a layup on the next possession.
 
After the Retrievers missed their first shot of the second half, Joyce got the offensive rebound, but Willis stole it from him and fed an assist to Howard, who made a layup. UMBC missed a 3-pointer and got another offensive rebound, but Lynn came up with yet another steal and assisted Willis, whose layup prompted UMBC coach Aki Thomas to call timeout.
 
The stoppage 109 seconds into the second half halted NJIT's momentum for a brief stretch and UMBC scored the game's next two baskets to get back to within six points, 34-28, after a dunk by Devarick Houston at the 17:22 mark. But the Highlanders went on a 8-1 surge to go back up 48-35 when Coleman nailed a 3-point basket with 8:44 left.
 
The Highlanders led by at least 11 the rest of the way and took their biggest lead when Lynn, who spent some time on the bench in the second half with a nose bleed, hit from downtown to make it 60-42 with 3:52 remaining.
 
NJIT, which did not win by more than 8 points in any of its first five victories, has set new season highs for winning margin in each of the last two games. The Highlanders beat Saint Francis U by 12 points on Tuesday and followed with Friday's 15-point bulge at UMBC.
 
Also worth noting, NJIT has played 16 games and a lopsided 12 have been on the road, where the Highlanders are now 4-8. They are 3-1 at home, where they will play their next three games, starting with a 7 pm game visit from Maryland Eastern Shore next Wednesday, January 7, in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
With the schedule just past its midpoint, NJIT will play 9 of its remaining 13 regular season games on campus in Newark