LOWELL, Mass. – Junior Angel Montas Jr. (La Romana, D.R.) registered 22-points and a personal-best 11 rebounds for his first career double-double, as the UMass Lowell men's basketball team (8-11, 3-1 AE) faced a 73-64 setback against NJIT (8-11, 3-1 AE) on Thursday evening at Kennedy Family Athletics Complex.
 
"A disappointing loss at home, but I'm not taking any credit away from NJIT, I thought they played great," said Head Coach Pat Duquette. "We went to zone late and that slowed them down a little bit, but they built too big of a lead in the first. We dug too big of a hole for ourselves and although we outscored them in the second half, it just wasn't enough. We struggled against their zone and we need to get better in that area. A lot of that's on the coaches. We've got to give them some better stuff against the zone. Our personnel is different than in the past, so we are going to have to adapt and come up with some new looks, but we will."
 
All 22 of Montas Jr.'s points came in the second half of the contest. Juniors Xavier Spencer (Calgary, Alberta) and Darrel Yepdo (Dracut, Mass.) each added 11 points in the decision. As a team, the River Hawks outrebounded their opponents, 44-37.
 
Junior Shawn Simmons II (Philadelphia, Pa.) and senior Austin Green (Sicklerville, N.J.) tallied the first buckets of the night for the home side, forcing an early tie heading into the first media timeout. However, the Highlanders responded with a 20-3 run over the next seven and a half minutes to pull in front, 24-9, with 5:55 remaining in the first half.
 
Green converted at the line and Simmons II followed with a driving layup to break up the NJIT stretch, and although the visitors followed with a three, Spencer then responded from deep to cut the difference to 27-15 at 4:19. The Highlanders tallied the next nine consecutive points, but Green laid in the final basket of the period to make it 36-17 as the teams headed to the locker rooms.
 
Yepdo and Montas Jr. each knocked down a triple to bookend free throws from Simmons II, igniting a 13-2 run to start the second half and closing the gap to 40-30 with 16 minutes to go. UMass Lowell then pulled within single-digits thanks to an and-1 from Montas Jr. to make it 42-33 at 15:22.
 
The home squad was back within nine following another Montas Jr. bucket less than a minute later, but NJIT scored 11 of the next 16 points, extending the margin to 55-40 with 10 minutes on the clock. Junior Kalil Farmer (Philadelphia, Pa.) answered with a jumper ahead of free throws from Spencer and Montas Jr.
 
The visitors would maintain at least a 12-point advantage until Farmer and Montas Jr. hit back-to-back layups and Yepdo added free throws to cut it to 65-56 at 4:21. Although NJIT tallied the next five points, UMass Lowell outscored the opposition, 8-3, down the stretch, including four points from Montas Jr., but it was not enough to overcome the 73-64 outcome.
 
The River Hawks are off for the remainder of the week before squaring off against Vermont on Thursday, January 22 at 6 p.m.