VIDEO: NJIT Highlights

Newark, NJ - The NJIT men's basketball team suffered an 82-75 setback to visiting North Florida on Thursday evening at the Wellness and Events Center.

UNF (15-10, 8-2 ASUN) raced out to an early lead and never trailed before holding off a valiant comeback effort late in the second half from NJIT (7-15, 4-5 ASUN) to earn the win and remain tied for first place in the ASUN Conference. 

The Ospreys opened the game with a three-pointer and drained their first eight field goal attempts to jump out to a 20-8 lead just more than six minutes into the contest. 

"You can't let a good team like UNF come out of the gates and jump out to such a big lead," said NJIT Head Coach Brian Kennedy. "We let them have their way a bit early and it put us in quite the hole."

NJIT was able to get within four late in the opening half, but a late run from UNF made the score 50-38 as the teams went to their respective locker rooms for halftime. The 50 points scored by UNF were the most given up in a first half by NJIT this season as the visitors shot 72.0% (18-for-25) from the field in the first 20 minutes. 

The UNF lead reached a game-high 19 points when a Josh Endicott three-pointer made the score 63-44 with 14:03 remaining. 

NJIT didn't go away, however, as the Highlanders put together a 19-6 run to cut the margin to six on a Zach Cooks three-pointer with 5:51 to play.

"One thing we've learned about this team is they'll never quit," added Kennedy. 

A pair of Cooks free throws cut the deficit to 74-71 with just more than one minute on the clock, but the Ospreys answered with a three-pointer from JT Escobar to go back ahead by six. 

NJIT was unable to get within four the rest of the way as the Ospreys held on for the seven-point road win. 

Cooks paced four Highlanders in double-figures with 19 points, while Souleymane Diakite scored 13 and grabbed a game-best 15 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. San Antonio Brinson (14 points) and Reilly Walsh (11 points) also reached double figures, while Shyquan Gibbs and Diego Willis chipped in with seven points each. 

Wajid Aminu scored 21 for the Ospreys to lead all scorers and Carter Hendrickson added 19 to help push UNF to its third-straight win and seasons split vs. NJIT

The road teams have won the last five games in the series.

NJIT will look to end its two-game losing skid on Saturday when it welcomes Jacksonville to the WEC at 4pm. 

"We need to come out ready to play on Saturday," concluded Kennedy. "They got the better of us on their court last month, but if we play our brand of basketball, we can return the favor."