VIDEO: NJIT Highlights

NEWARK, NJ - The NJIT men's basketball team dropped its regular season finale 72-58 to visiting Binghamton on Sunday in America East action at the Wellness and Events Center. 

NJIT wraps up the 2020-21 regular season with a 7-11 overall record and 6-10 mark in America East play, while Binghamton finished the season with a 4-13 record, including 4-10 in league action. The Highlanders will be the eighth seed for the Hercules Tire America East Championships and will play fifth seeded Albany in their opening game Saturday in West Hartford, CT.

Binghamton shot greater than 50 percent for the second-consecutive day to earn the series sweep against NJIT, which shot just 34.5% on Sunday, including 14.9% from three-point range. 

Zach Cooks led the Highlanders in scoring for the sixth-straight game with a 21-point effort, while freshman Mekhi Gray had the best offensive performance of his young career, scoring 13.

Cooks and the Highlanders trailed by five points on several occasions early in the first half, but rallied to take a 31-30 lead into the locker room at halftime. 

Binghamton struck first in the second half to re-take the lead and broke a 34-34 tie with nine-straight points to take a comfortable lead just over four minutes into the half. 

NJIT was able to get within four, but never got any closer as the Bearcats broke the game open and led by as many as 16 down the stretch. 

Dan Petcash and George Tinsley each scored 16 points to pace Binghamton and were joined in double figures by Thomas Bruce (12 points) and Tyler Bertram (11 points). 

In addition to his stellar offensively performance, Cooks tied his career-high with five steals and now has 230 for his career, the second most in NJIT history. The senior captain also climbed to fifth on NJIT's all-time scoring list with 1,763 career points. 

NJIT and Albany will open up America East Tournament action at 5pm on Saturday on the campus of the University of Hartford. Hartford will take on Binghamton at 2pm on Saturday and the winners of each game will meet Sunday with a spot in the semifinals on the line.