NEWARK, NJ - The NJIT men's basketball dropped a heartbreaker on Saturday evening as Vermont, the first place team in the America East, broke an 80-80 tie on a tip-in with eight seconds to play in overtime to escape with an 82-80 victory.

The Highlanders lead for more than 36 minutes on Saturday and were ahead by a game-high 11 with just over 10 minutes to play before the Catamounts battled back to force overtime and earn the victory and clinch at least a share of the conference regular season title for the seventh-straight season.

Adam Hess drained a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left in regulation to put the Highlanders ahead 74-71, but the Catamounts calmly came down the floor and Finn Sullivan connected on his fourth three-pointer of the game to tie the score with just under three seconds left. Mekhi Gray's desperation game-winning attempt fell short and NJIT found itself headed to overtime for the fourth time in 13 America East games this season.

Vermont scored the first three points of overtime to go ahead by three, which happened to be its biggest lead of the evening. Kevin Osawe made a pair of foul shots to cut the margin to one and fellow Toronto native Raheim Sullivan made a deep jumper to give the Highlanders a one point lead with 1:29 on the clock.

Aaron Deloney answered with an old-fashioned three-point play to put the visitors back ahead by two, but the lead was short-lived as Osawe scored on the other end to tie the game once again with 38 seconds to play.

Dylan Penn's go-ahead attempt rimmed out with eight seconds on the clock, but Vermont's Robin Duncan was able to tip in the miss with five seconds left to win the game for the Catamounts. 

The Highlanders were able to get the ball across half court and called timeout. NJIT drew up a play for Kjell de Graaf, but his three-point attempt didn't go as Vermont escaped Newark with the win. 

Osawe put together his best game as a Highlander, scoring 29 points and grabbing 18 boards, both career-highs. The 29 points came on 12-of-17 shooting and 5-of-6 from the foul line. Sullivan added 19 points, three off his career-high on 7-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-9 from long range. The pair of Canadians were joined in double figures by fellow graduate student Adam Hess, who tallied 15 points.

Both Sullivan and Hess played all 45 minutes on Saturday as the injury-depleted Highlanders played just seven players. 

As a team, the Highlanders shot 55.2% from the field, their best shooting performance through 26 games this season.

Sullivan led Vermont with 21 points, while Penn added 19 and Duncan recorded a double-double with 13 points and 12 boards.

NJIT will look to bounce back on Wednesday when it hosts Bryant for the final home game of the season. Tip-off is slated for 7pm in Newark.