Lafayette 76, NJIT 71

The Lafayette Leopards took blow after blow from NJIT, but the Leopards survived to walk away with a 76-71 victory on Sunday afternoon on Lafayette’s home court in Easton, Pa.

After entering halftime with a two-point advantage, Lafayette opened up its biggest lead at 54-44 midway through the second half. NJIT battled back to make it a two-point game in the final minute, but the Highlanders could not get the bucket they needed to tie it up.

Lafayette sophomore guard Nick Lindner made all eight of his free throws in the final minute of play to help seal the win. Lindner, the second-best foul shooter in the country entering play (91.2 percent), finished with 10 points. He was one of four Leopards in double figures along with senior wing Seth Hinrichs (18), senior forward Dan Trist (17) and senior guard Joey Ptasinski (11).

Neither NJIT nor Lafayette was able to get going from beyond the arc, even though both teams entered play ranked among the top teams in the country in 3-point shooting. Lafayette, the second-best team in the country in that category, was 6 of 19 on 3-pointers, and NJIT was just 5 of 24 for its worst performance of the season from long range.

After getting down 2-0 to start the game, Lafayette scored the next five points of the contest and led from that point on.

NJIT sophomore guard Damon Lynn led the Highlanders in scoring with 24 points, while sophomore forward Tim Coleman had 14 and junior guard Ky Howard added 11.