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NEWARK, NJ--NJIT men's basketball will take another step in its season when it hosts St. Francis (NY) on Saturday afternoon in a  2 pm game in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The Highlanders are coming off a 15-15 season in 2010-11, but it was one that saw nearly all of NJIT's success come from January 8 on, when NJIT went 13-5 after posting a 2-10 record in the opening dozen games.
 
Of course, a strong finish, such as the one the Highlanders had last season, is desirable. But their aim is to pick up wins earlier in the calendar and then put a strong finish on top of a solid start.
 
Included in the slow start was a one-sided 72-47 loss at St. Francis on December 30. That loss was sandwiched between a seven-point loss to Long Island University, which would go on to play in 2011 NCAA Tournament and a nine-point loss to Lehigh, which was the defending Patriot League champion and had played in 2010 NCAA Tournament.
 
St. Francis won that game against NJIT by committing just eight turnovers in the game and by shooting 56 percent from the field in the second half after rallying late in the first half to build a 35-23 halftime lead. On defense, the Terriers limited the Highlanders to .351 shooting from the floor (20-57), which would be the third-lowest percentage of the year for NJIT behind only .304 at Seton Hall and .328 against Utah Valley.
 
This game should help clarify things for the Highlanders. Through four games, their two losses have been against Division I teams on the road (62-48 at Manhattan; 79-58 at UMass) and their two wins have been at home against Division III teams by an average margin of 51 points.
 
Against Manhattan in the season opener, NJIT had a seven-point lead midway through the second half, but faltered down the stretch and lost by 14. At UMass, facing the undefeated Minutemen (who won their next game by 36 over Boston College), the Highlanders were tied late in the first half, but were done in by an 18-2 UMass run to close the opening half. Down 16 to begin the second half, NJIT closed to within 11 points twice, but could not get closer.
 
NJIT will look to senior captain Isaiah Wilkerson, who leads the team in scoring (15 ppg) and rebounding (5.5 rpg), as he did last year. Wilkerson was game-high scorer both against Manhattan (23 points; 10-14 shooting) and against UMass (18 points, plus 8 rebounds).
 
Wilkerson is NJIT's only double-figure scorer this season, but Chris Flores is close (9.3 ppg) and the junior has averaged 13.1 points in his 65-game career. Senior Arjun Ohri, in his second season with the Highlanders, is averaging 9 ppg and he is 10-for-22 (.455) on 3-pointers.
 
Junior captain Ryan Woods, who was not eligible to play last year under NCAA transfer rules and then missed the first three games this year after undergoing shoulder surgery, made his Highlander debut in the last game. He is expected to play a key role once he works his way into form. 
 
St. Francis will bring an 0-4 record into Saturday's game, but two of the four have been against local Big East teams Seton Hall (75-71 loss in overtime in the opener) and St. John's (63-48 in the last game Tuesday night). The other two were close losses on the road at Lafayette (79-73) and at Hofstra (63-59). Indeed, the Terriers will play their first nine contests on the road, finally getting a home game on December 19.
 
Last year when St. Francis topped the Highlanders, three Terriers reached double-figure scoring, led by Ricky Cadell (20 points), Akeem Bennett (18), and Stefan Purancic (13). Cadell and Bennett were both seniors, but so was the only Highlander to reach double-figures in the game, Jheryl Wilson (19 points, 8-12 shooting). Aside from Wilson, the other four NJIT starters, all of whom are back this year, combined to shoot 5-for-26 in the game.
 
This year, Purancic, a 6-foot-6 swingman from Serbia, is second on the team at 10.5 ppg. The top scorer, at 15.3 ppg, is Travis Nichols, a 6-foot-4 junior, who is in his first year as a starter after emerging as a top reserve for last year's 15-15 St. Francis squad. Nichols, who played only two minutes last year against NJIT, also leads the Terriers on the boards, with eight per game. He had a monster game in the opener at Seton Hall, with 25 points and 14 rebounds.
 
Ben Mockford, a sophomore transfer from Iona, and Dre Calloway each average 9.5 ppg and the second-leading rebounder for St. Francis is freshman Jalen Cannon (6.8 rpg), while Akeem Johnson chips in six rebounds a game. Cannon was a high school teammate and classmate of NJIT rookie Daquan Holiday at William Allen High School in Allentown, PA.
 
The head coach of St. Francis is Glenn Braica, who is in his second season at the helm after spending the previous six years as the top assistant at St. John's. Before that, he was at St, Francis as an assistant for 15 years.
 
Fans unable to make the game can follow all the action live on www.njithighlanders.com, which will carry a webcast play-by-play and commentary from Matt Provence, as well as an in-game real-time stat feed. Audio coverage begins a few minutes before the 2 pm game.