WATCH Highlights at Lipscomb

NASHVILLE, TN—The NJIT women's basketball team clinched a spot in the 2019 ASUN Conference Tournament, paced by three double-figure scorers, registering a 69-53 victory at Lipscomb in ASUN Conference women's basketball action at Allen Arena Wednesday evening.

With the win, the Highlanders snap a 10-game skid, sweep the regular season series from the Lady Bison and earn a spot in the ASUN Conference postseason tournament.

NJIT, with two games remaining in the regular season, are still in contention to move up to the seventh seed in the conference tournament.  NJIT will host Liberty on Saturday, March 2 and wrap up the regular season at North Florida on March 5.  Kennesaw State (8-19, 4-10 ASUN) sits in seventh place, plays Stetson (March 2) and Lipscomb (March 5) to close out the year.

The Highlanders improve to 3-11 in the ASUN, 6-21 overall while Lipscomb falls to 1-13 in the ASUN, 3-24 overall.

Graduate student Kelly Guarino led the way for the Highlanders with 23 points on 3-for-6 from three-point range and a perfect 14-of-14 from the free throw line.  The 14 free throws made ties the NJIT Division I single-game record with Jessica Gerald (14 at Maine; 11/29/08).

Junior forward Danielle Tunstall netted 18 points and seven rebounds, shooting 7-for-12 from the field and Milena Bajic added 13 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.

Lipscomb's Taylor Clarke netted 13 points while Emily Kmec and Lauren Rau each added 11 points.

After trailing by as many as five points in the first 10 minutes, NJIT cut the deficit to one, 13-12, led by four straight points from the free throw line by Kelly Guarino.

NJIT opened the second quarter with back-to-back three-pointers by Guarino and Milena Bajic for a two-point advantage, 18-16.  Lipscomb used a 7-0 run to push ahead by five, 23-18, led by Lauren Rau, who scored five of the Lady Bisons seven points in the spurt, resulting in a Highlander timeout.

The Highlanders scored 13 unanswered in the final 5:13, paced by six points by Danielle Tunstall, giving the Highlanders a seven-point cushion, 30-23, at the half.

Guarino led all scorers at the half with 10 points knocking down a pair of three pointers and shooting 4-of-4 from the free throw line followed by nine points and four rebounds from Tunstall.

Lipscomb scored the first points of the third quarter but the Highlanders extended its lead to nine, 38-29, on eight straight free throws, just under the five-minute media.  NJIT took its largest lead of the game, 12, 42-30, on an up and under move by Jillian Libby.

.@JillianLibby1 makes some moves in the paint and gets the layup to fall, pushing the @NJITWBB lead to 12, the highest of the night #Highlanders pic.twitter.com/MwcQ1Qu7qG

— #ASUNWBB 🏀 (@ASUNWBB) February 28, 2019

NJIT continued its momentum into the fourth quarter, scoring the first five points, for a 16-point advantage after Bajic's second three-pointer of the game.  Lipscomb used a 9-2 run to cut the Highlander lead down to single digits, 54-45, sparked by a layup by Taylor Clark at the seven-minute mark.

The lead continued to grow for the Highlanders, pushing its lead back up to double-figures, 58-45, and never looked back, securing the 69-53 victory.

The Highlanders finished the game shooting 40.4 percent (19-for-47) and 71 percent from the free throw line (25-for-35).

NJIT will close out the home portion of its schedule on Saturday at 1pm against Liberty inside NJIT's Wellness and Events Center.

The Highlanders will honor six graduating seniors -- Kelly Guarino, Tatianna Torres, Jillian Libby, Amber Morgan, Amarri Trueheart and Jordan Ireland in pre-game ceremonies on Saturday.