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OREM, UT—The NJIT men's basketball team opens the next chapter in its best season at the Division level on Thursday when the Highlanders start play in the 2011 Great West Conference Basketball Tournament presented by Pepsi. The second-seeded Highlanders will take on seventh-seeded Houston Baptist in opening-round play with a 4:30 pm EST start.
The entire tournament, women's and men's, will be played in Orem in the UCCU Center on the campus of Utah Valley University, which is hosting the tournament for the second year in a row.
NJIT fans can follow all the action with live audio here on www.njithighlanders.com, with play-by-play and commentary provided by Matt Provence. He will call all the action for both NJIT teams for all of their GWC Tournament games.
The Highlanders, 15-14 (best record in the Division I era, including 13-4 since January 8), finished the regular season in sole possession of second place in the Great West Conference with a 9-3 record.
NJIT, which began Division I competition in 2006-07, comfortably surpassed its previous Division I high of 10 wins, done last season. And the Highlanders more than reversed their 4-8 conference record in last year's inaugural GWC season.
Houston Baptist (4-25 overall) was 2-10 in the Great West, tying Texas-Pan American at the bottom of the conference standings. The Huskies were seeded sixth on the basis of artificial tie-breakers after those two teams split their two regular season games.
The Highlanders, who had not beaten HBU in five tires heading into this season, beat the Huskies twice this season. In Newark, the score was 96-84 and later, in Houston, it was a hard-fought 72-66. H
The close second game between the schools was part of a late run by the Huskies that showed improvement from their earlier struggles. After losing to NJIT, HBU won its next game against Middle Tennessee. The Huskies lost their last three, but they were close—just 67-62 at eventual GWC regular season champ Utah Valley in Utah; by four points against third-place North Dakota; and, 96-87 against defending conference champ South Dakota.
The Huskies feature the GWC's top scorer in senior wing player Andrew Gonzalez, who averages 23 points per game. His career average in five games against NJIT is 24.4, including 27 and 29 points, respectively in this season's two games.
The Highlanders will look for leadership from its three double figure-scoring starters Isaiah Wilkerson (13.7 ppg), Jheryl Wilson (13 ppg), and Chris Flores (12.8 ppg). Wilkerson leads the rebounding (6.2 rpg), while Flores leads in steals (44). PJ Miller is the assists leader (86), while Ryan Regis leads in blocks (25). Regis is one of a group of players who have appeared at center and they usually appear one at a time. As a group, they have 78 blocked shots.
If the Highlanders get past Wednesday's opener, they will play in the semifinals, facing the winner of the first-round game between third-seeded North Dakota (16-14, 8-4 GWC) and sixth-seeded Texas-Pan American (6-24, 2-10 GWC). The Highlanders swept the two-game season series from both of their potential semifinal opponents.
The 2011 GWC championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 9:30 pm EST.
Regular season champion and tournament host Utah Valley (19-10, 11-1 GWC) has a first-round bye into the semifinal round and is in the opposite side of the tournament bracket from the Highlanders.
The 2011 Great West Conference men's championship game will be televised live across the nation on Fox College Sports, which is available in approximately 11 million homes across the country.
The champion of the Great West Conference tournament will receive an automatic berth in the annual CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament. The CIT is open to Division I teams that do not qualify for the NCAA Division I championship tournament.
In addition to the live audio on njithighlanders.com, live video streaming will be available, courtesy of Utah Valley University.
Streaming video link
