VIDEO:
NJIT Highlights
Postgame Interview w/ Brian Kennedy and Miles Coleman
Postgame Interview w/ Assistant Coach Jeff Rafferty

NEWARK, NJ - The NJIT men's basketball team raced out to a huge, first-half lead before making critical plays down the stretch to hold off visiting Sacred Heart in non-conference action on Tuesday evening at the Wellness and Events Center.

NJIT (3-3) scored the first six points of the game and jumped out to an early 19-2 lead. The lead blossomed to as many as 24 when Mekhi Gray dunked home a backdoor pass from Matt Faw to make the score 31-7with just over seven minutes on the clock in the first half. 

"Our guys came out and played great," said sixth-year NJIT Head Coach Brian Kennedy. "We needed to take the momentum from the St. John's game into tonight and I thought we did just that."

Sacred Heart (2-5) ended the half on a run of its own, however, scoring the final eight points and cutting the margin to 12 at the break. Dylan O'Hearn led all scorers at halftime with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting. 

"There was a little mental fatigue there from our guys and we let them get back in it," added Kennedy.

The Pioneers cut the deficit to five early in the second half, but the Highlanders immediately answered with a 6-0 run to get the lead back to double-digits. 

A driving layup from James Lee with 6:16 to play put the Highlanders up by 12 before Sacred Heart made another push, this time going on a 19-5 run to tie the game at 70 with 1:32 on the clock.

A fast break layup from O'Hearn off a feed from Miles Coleman put the Highlanders back in front with 1:21 on the clock, and this time they were able to hold onto the lead, getting stops on defense and hitting free throws on the other end to make the final score 75-70.

Coleman was the star of the second half, scoring 18 points after halftime to finish with a new career-high of 24 points. O'Hearn finished the contest with 20 points.

"I wanted to get the ball in Miles hands down the stretch, and he came up huge for us," concluded Kennedy."

Souleymane Diakite joined Coleman and O'Hearn in double figures, scoring a season-high 11 points to go along with seven rebounds. Lee had another efficient game, scoring nine points on seven shots, grabbing eight rebounds from his guard position and getting four steals. Antwuan Butler also filled the stat sheet for NJIT, scoring six points, grabbing six boards and dishing out a team-best five assists without turning the ball over once.

Sacred Heart's Tyler Thomas led all scorers with 29 points.

Tuesday's game was the first all-time between NJIT and Sacred Heart. The Highlanders are now 2-1 this season against teams from the Northeast Conference and 22-14 all-time, including 10-3 in the Brian Kennedy era. 

The Highlanders will try to make it three in a row at home when they return to the floor on Thursday to welcome St. Elizabeth to the WEC. Tip-off is slated for 7pm.