Baltimore, Md.-- UMBC men's basketball used a big first half push to defeat New Hampshire, 65-59 on senior day at the UMBC Event Center. Senior K.J. Jackson (Missouri City, Texas) had a big second half and down the stretch to keep UMBC in front for the win. Jackson ended with a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds.

The Retrievers win their third-straight and fifth in their last seven to improve to 12-14, 5-6 AE while New Hampshire falls to 11-13, 4-7 AE. 

Jackson ended with a game-high 19 points adding seven rebounds, one of three Retrievers in double figures. Brandon Horvath (West River, Md./Southern) added 14 points and eight boards with R.J. Eytle-Rock (London, England) adding 11 points. Dimitrije Spasojevic (Vrsac, Serbia) added a season-high 10 rebounds in the win.

Marque Maltsby led the Wildcats with 15 points with Josh Hopkins and Nick Guadarrama adding 12 points each. 

UNH cut into a double digit lead by the Retrievers to open the second half, getting the deficit to as little as two. Both sides would battle back and forth throughout the second half, but the Retrievers would never let UNH get closer than two at any point in the half.

Jackson took over late in the half, with 16 of his 19 points coming in the final 20 minutes include a stretch of eight of the team's nine points late to give UMBC a 65-59 victory on Saturday.

The Retrievers outscored the Wildcats 38-18 in the paint and 19-8 in bench points. UMBC held UNH to just 26 percent from three, while shooting 40 percent from the floor themselves.

The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead, but Brandon Horvath kept them in it with an and one early on. That would ignite the Retriever offense who hit nine of 11 to take their first lead of the half, 16-15. During that stretch, Dimitrije Spasojevic scored seven points in four minutes to fuel the run. 

That stretch would extend to a 14-2 run over a six minute span to push the lead to nine points. However, the Wildcats would respond with a quick 7-0 spurt to cut the lead to just two, forcing a UMBC timeout. L.J. Owens (Annapolis, Md./Severn School/William & Mary) ended the drought with a pull up three. 

That three started an 11-0 run over the last 3:41, capped by a Daniel Akin (London, England) layup at the buzzer to give UMBC a 37-24 lead at the half. 

Horvath led all scorers with 10 points adding four rebounds. Spasojevic chipped in seven and six for the Retrievers who scored 24 of their 37 points in the paint. 

UMBC will take their three-game winning streak to UAlbany next Thursday, Feb. 20 to kick off two games in three days. Tip-off with the Great Danes is set for 7 p.m.