LOWELL, Mass. – Despite pulling within five in the final two minutes, the UMass Lowell men's basketball team (2-7, 1-2 AE) succumbed to NJIT (3-2, 2-1 AE), 73-67, on Saturday afternoon.
 
Although the visitors led by as many as 20 in the first half, the River Hawks fought all the way back to pull within two possessions three times in the final minutes, including on a jumper by senior Obadiah Noel (Frederick, Md.) with 23 seconds to go, but the home team was unable to make it any closer.
 
"Credit to NJIT, I think they came up here and really played well in the first half," said Head Coach Pat Duquette. "They were the aggressors. They were way too comfortable in our home gym in the first half. More than that, I thought we weren't disruptive. But, I thought we did a great job fighting back. I'm proud of my guys for that. We still made some careless mistakes during that time, otherwise I thought we had a good chance to win the game."
 
Noel registered a game-high 26 points in the contest. Sophomore Darion Jordan-Thomas (Brockton, Mass.) added 11 points and a team-high six rebounds, while freshman Anthony Blunt (Bowie, Md.) chipped in seven.
 
The Highlanders built an early, double-digit buffer by holding the River Hawks without a field goal through the first eight minutes of the contest. Sophomore Gregory Hammond (New Orleans, La.) and classmate Kalil Thomas (New Orleans, La.) provided a spark off the bench with the home team's first buckets of the afternoon to make the score, 17-6, with 11:30 remaining in the first half.
 
NJIT led by as many as 20 in the period before UMass Lowell clawed its way back with an 11-0 run that included a pair of triples from Blunt to cut the difference to 30-21 at 2:54. However, the Highlanders tallied five of the last seven points in the half to take a 35-23 advantage into the break.
 
Redshirt-sophomore Bryce Daley (Pittsfield, Mass.) banked in a layup to open the scoring in the second half, as the teams traded buckets in the early minutes. The Highlanders worked to stretch their lead to as many as 17 once again halfway through the period, but Jordan-Thomas and Noel combined to ignite an 11-3 spurt that put the River Hawks within five at 68-53 for the first of three times in the final two minutes.
 
The River Hawks and Highlanders are back at it tomorrow afternoon, as the teams square off at 1 p.m. on Sunday, January 3.