Box Score WEST HARTFORD, CT - The NJIT men's basketball team suffered a 75-61 setback to host Hartford in America East Conference action on Sunday at the Chase Center on the University of Hartford campus.
A day after rallying from a double-digit deficit to defeat Hartford (11-8, 8-6 America East), NJIT (7-9, 6-8 America East) fell into too big of a hole on Sunday, trailing by as many as 22, and split the sixth of seven America East series this season.
Hartford started the game strong offensively, draining nine of their first 12 field goal attempts, and led by as many as 20 at one point in the first half. The Highlanders were able to dig into the lead and cut it to 16, 42-28, at halftime as the Hawks finished the first 20 minutes shooting an impressive 68.0% (17 of 25) from the field.
The hosts scored the first eight points of the second half to increase their lead to 22, but a 10-2 NJIT run made the margin 14 again by the first media time out.
The Highlanders were able to get the deficit to 12 on several occasions over the next few minutes, but never were able to get any closer as Hartford pulled away late to earn the series split and maintain their spot in the top half of the America East standings.
Zach Cooks scored 24 points for NJIT for the second-straight game, this time on 10-of-16 shooting. The senior captain was also 3-of-4 from three-point range and now has 1,717 career points and only needs seven more to tie
Chris Flores on the program's all-time scoring list.
Antwuan Butler joined Cooks in double figures with 12 points and
Diego Willis chipped in with eight.
Souleymane Diakite led the Highlanders on the boards with eight rebounds, while Butler led the team in assists, dishing out three on Sunday.
Hartford, which finished the game shooting 58.3% (28-of-48) from the field and 47.4% (9-of-19) from three-point range, had five players finish with at least 10 points. The Hawks were paced by Miroslav Stafl, who scored 17 points in the victory, while Austin Williams pulled down a team-best eight reboudns.
The Highlanders will return to the court next weekend for two more America East conference games at Binghamton on Saturday and Sunday. Game times will be announced early in the week.
