BURLINGTON, VT – The NJIT men's basketball falls to Vermont, 63-54, in the America East Semifinals on Tuesday night.

The rubber match between the Highlanders and the Catamounts was worth the price of admission with the physicality and intensity from the regular season being heightened in the post-season.

The Highlanders found themselves down early with the Catamounts opening the game on a 14-2 run in the first seven minutes of play.

The Highlanders first basket did not come until just under 15 minutes with graduate student Melvyn Ebonkoli laying one in.

Going into the break, the Highlanders trailed 26-18 and shot just 7-26 (26.9%) from the field in the first half.

Coming out of the half, the Highlanders used a 6-0 run to make it a two-point contest and forced an early Catamounts timeout.

After the early timeout, the Highlanders continued their run totaling an 11-2 run that spanned across the first five minutes of the second half. The run was highlighted by a three by junior Sebastian Robinson to give the Highlanders the lead, 29-28, their first lead of the game.

The Catamounts responded with a 6-0 run to retake the lead sending the crowd in Patrick Gymnasium into a frenzy.

Later in the half, the Catamounts used a 14-3 run to take a 53-39 lead, their biggest of the game, with just over five minutes left in the final half.

The Catamounts were able to maintain their lead in the closing minutes and secure the win to advance to the conference finals.

Leading the way for the Highlanders was Robinson with 20 points, his 10^th 20-point game of the season and his 16^th straight game in double-digits. Bolden followed with 11 points as the backcourt for the Highlanders were the only double-figure scorers of the game.

The Highlanders close out a remarkable season in year three of the Billmeier Era. Ten conference wins marks the highest win total in program history, passing their win total of nine as a member of the Great West in 2010-11. The six-game winning streak tied the Highlanders longest winning streak in their D-I era, accomplished first in 2011 and matched in 2015. The Highlanders clinched a top-4 seed and hosted an America East quarterfinal game for the first time since joining the conference in 2020. Finally, 16 wins on the season is the most overall wins since the 2018-19 season.

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