Men's Basketball Ends Road Trip with Thrilling Win at Vermont, 79-77

The NJIT men's basketball team wins thrilling road game at Vermont, 79-77, and improve to 6-2 in America East action.

It was a slow start between two of the top teams in the America East with the score being just 13-7 eight minutes into the game.

This slow start flipped when the Highlanders powered by freshman duo of David Bolden and Rocco Awad to go on a 10-0 run and to take a 14-point lead.

The Catamounts responded quickly with a run of their own going on an 8-2 run to make it a single digit game. However, the Highlanders were able to adjust on the fly and caused the Catamounts to go on a two-minute scoring drought before the half.

Heading into the break, the Highlanders led 32-21 and held the lead for just over 19 minutes of the first half.

Bolden led the way for the Highlanders with seven points and sophomore Ari Fulton contributed nine rebounds.

As a team the Highlanders shot 13-31 from the field (41.9%) and 5-11 from behind the arc (45.5%) compared to the Catamounts 7-28 from the field (25%).

The Highlanders opened the final half on a 10-4 run capitalized by a mid-range jumper through contact from junior Sebastian Robinson who completed the three-point play.

Just like the first half, the Catamounts went on a run of their own. An 11-2 run shrunk the Highlanders lead to nine with 11 minutes to go.

The next five minutes of game time was filled with whistles and loud crowd reactions as both teams got physical diving for loose balls.

The Catamounts were able to use the home crowd for momentum and got the game within six points with just over six minutes to go in the final half.

In the final four minutes of the game both teams exchanged buckets however with 100 seconds left, the Catamounts knocked down back-to-back threes to make it 69-63 with the Highlanders still in the lead.

With 16 seconds remaining the Catamounts were able to make it a three-point game, but Fulton knocked down a pair of free throws to ice the game.

Leading the way for the Highlanders was Robinson with 22 points on 8-14 shooting from the field. This marks Robinson's fifth game with 20+ in conference play and sixth game this season.

Fulton recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Bolden followed with 16 points and sophomore Jordan Rogers scored 15 with two big three-pointers down the stretch.

With the win, the Highlanders reached their highest conference win total since joining the America East, matching their conference high of six wins set in the 2021–22 season.

Next Up
NJIT returns home to the Bloom Wellness and Events Center as the Highlanders welcome UMass Lowell on Thursday, Feb. 5 for a 7 p.m. start time. Stay up to date on all things NJIT Men's Basketball throughout the season by following @NJITHoops on X/Twitter and Instagram.