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NEWARK, NJ--NJIT men's basketball returns from a brief break for Christmas to host local rival Fairleigh Dickinson in the final home game of the 2011 calendar year Wednesday at 7 pm game in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The Knights are the second of three opponents from the Northeast Conference on this season's NJIT schedule. Back on November 26, in their only previous home game against a Division I opponent, the Highlanders fell to St. Francis (NY), 79-60. NJIT will wrap up its slate of NEC foes on Friday, when it visits defending conference champ Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY.
 
FDU, which is 1-9, having lost its first two, defeating Saint Peter's on November 18, and then lost seven straight, most recently a 71-53 home decision on December 21 against traditional mid-major power Vermont.
 
The Knights have had the added burden of trying to gel with a revamped roster (10 of the 15 players listed were not actove fpr FDU last year), plus a road-heavy schedule (7 away, 3 home).
 
Although 15 players appear on the roster, a couple are sitting out under NCAA transfer rules and coach Greg Vetrone has played 10 to date. Two of the 10 have logged fewer than 80 minutes (by comparison, NJIT has 11 players with at least 80 minutes in the same number of games).
 
With the relatively short rotation, Fairleigh comes in with four players averaging double-figure scoring. All four are playing for FDU for the first time.
 
Leading the way is Melquan Bolding (15 ppg). He's a 6-foot-3 junior guard who played two seasons at Duquesne. Lonnie Hayes, a junior college transfer, is next at 13.3 ppg, followed by George Goode (11.3 ppg, team-best 7.6 rebounds per game) and Kinu Rochford (10.4 ppg, 7.5 rpg). Hayes is a junior guard, while the big men are both transfers. Goode is a 6-foot-9 grad student who spent four years at national power Louisville, where he used three seasons of eligibility. Rochford is a 6-foot-6 junior college transfer.
 
Coach Vetrone, a long-time assistant coach at several schools, was FDU's Interim Head Coach in 2009-10, when he led the Knights to a 10-8 NEC record and a berth in the conference postseason tournament. The interim tag was removed in 2010 and he has guided the Knights since.
 
NJIT comes in having lost its last game, 77-53, at Rutgers on December 22. That loss saw the Highlanders build an eight-point lead early in the second half, only to be overtaken in a big way by their Big East hosts. Something similar happened against another Big East team, when the Highlanders were tied in the opening minute of the second half against Seton Hall on December 6, but lost by a wide margin.
 
The Highlanders enter the FDU game with two players averaging double-figure scoring, led by senior Isaiah Wilkerson, who tops the team in scoring (15 ppg) and rebounding (5.3 rpg), just as he did last season when he was a first-team All-Great West Conference honoree. Junior Chris Flores averages 10.1 points, followed by juniors Ryan Woods (9 ppg) and PJ Miller (7 ppg).
 
Woods, a transfer who was injured to start the season has played in seven games and was averaging double-figure scoring before the Rutgers game. Miller, who missed two games with a bone bruise in one of his knees, has shot 9-for-14 from the field in his two games back. He scored eight at Rutgers.
 
Last season, on February 1, NJIT and FDU met for the first time since NJIT became a Division I program and the Highlanders prevailed, 64-62, in overtime for their first win of 2010-11 against a Division I foe (the Highlanders went on to win 15 games, a new high since moving to the top level of competition in 2006-07).
 
Playing their first overtime game in four seasons, the Highlanders set a new program Division I record for rebounds in a game (54) and Sean McCarthy, then a sophomore, set a new NJIT DI standard with nine blocked shots.
 
The victory, which began a new program DI-best six game winning streak, did not come easily for NJIT. Only trailing for a brief 1:21 window midway through the first half, the Highlanders eventually led by halftime, 35-26. After an FDU run that trimmed the NJIT lead to one, the Highlanders pushed back into a 52-41 lead midway through the second half.
 
But the Highlanders managed only four more points in regulation, none in the last 6:46. FDU, too, went cold, shooting 1-for-12 from the field and 5-for-8 at the line the rest of the half. NJIT, which had the last possession of regulation, got two shots ahead of the buzzer, but neither fell.
 
The Highlanders, who never trailed in overtime, ended up outscoring the Knights 8-6 in the extra session, gaining the upper hand at last on a jump shot by Jheryl Wilson and a later foul shot for Chris Flores that made it 63-60 with 30 seconds left. FDU pulled back within a point on a pair of free throws before Lamar Kearse made a foul shot for the Highlanders with nine seconds left.
 
For NJIT, Wilson, who was a senior, scored 19 points, while Wilkerson finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds and Flores added 16 points. FDU's high scorers were senior Terence Grier, who came off the bench for a game-high 25 points, while fellow seniors Mike Scott and Kamil Svrdlik chipped in 13 and 10 points, respectively.
 
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 7 pm game.