Brinson, Gibbs Lead the Way as NJIT Ends UNF's 10-Game Home Winning Streak

Junior San Antonio Brinson set the tone with a program single-game record 37 points and senior captain Shyquan Gibbs took over down the stretch as the NJIT men's basketball team defeated North Florida 78-66 at UNF Arena.

NJIT (4-12, 1-2 ASUN) entered the game 0-2 in conference play, while UNF (10-9, 3-1 ASUN) was undefeated through three conference games and riding a 10-game home winning streak.

"We had a very tough competitive non-conference schedule and then opened ASUN play with the conference favorite followed by a pair of road games," said Head Coach Brian Kennedy. "It's hard to win on the road in college basketball, especially against good teams like UNF, but I thought our team rose to the occasion tonight."

Brinson dominated from the start, scoring eight of the Highlanders' first 16 points, but the Ospreys were strong offensively as well, and the game was tied 16-16 just over seven minutes into the contest.

NJIT led by as many as 11 late in the first half before UNF drained a pair of free throws in the final seconds and the margin was cut to nine, 37-28, as the teams headed to their locker rooms at halftime. Brinson led all scorers at halftime with 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field. 

The Highlanders opened the lead to 13 by the first media timeout of the second half, and it blossomed to 14, 57-43, on a jumper from Gibbs with 11:45 to play.

NJIT's lead increased to a game-high 18 points several times in the second half, but the Ospreys didn't go away, cutting it to single digits late in the half.

Gibbs took over from there, scoring eight points in the final few minutes to hold onto the lead, before Brinson delivered the final punch, a three-pointer as the shot clock was winding down, to give NJIT a 14-point lead with under two minutes on the clock.

"San Antonio and Shyquan were obviously great tonight, but that was a team win as everybody who stepped on the floor played hard," added Kennedy. "I thought Diego Willis, Byron Breland III and Xavier Mayo provided great hustle and energy in limited minutes." 

Mayo's five rebounds, including three offensive, were a career-high.

Brinson grabbed eight rebounds and dished out five of the Highlanders' 16 assists (one short of their season-high) in a career-high 39 minutes, while Gibbs finished the contest with a season-high 21 points.

UNF entered the game as the ASUN's top offense, averaging more than 78 points per game and 38.7% from long range, but on Saturday the Highlanders were able to hold the Ospreys to 66 points, their third-lowest scoring performance of the season, and 26.1% (6-of-23) from three-point range.

"Our game plan was obviously to chase them off the three-point line and force them to take shots they didn't want to take," concluded Kennedy. "I thought we did just that as our team defense was great."

NJIT will look to make it two in a row on Thursday when it hosts Lipscomb at 12 p.m. in the Wellness and Events Center as part of the athletic department's annual Education Day.