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NEWARK, NJ—North Dakota, champion of the 2011 Great West Conference men's basketball Tournament, visits NJIT Saturday afternoon in a matchup of teams with identical 3-3 records in conference play. Saturday's contest, slated for 2 pm in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center, will be preceded by the annual Alumni Game at 11 am.
 
North Dakota, which defeated the Highlanders, 80-63, on January 26 in Grand Forks, ND, comes to Newark having just scored its first road win of the season, a 75-69 victory at Chicago State. The Fighting Sioux are now 1-11 away from home and 10-1 at home.
 
North Dakota, which won last year's GWC Tournament with a starting lineup consisting of a junior and four freshmen, has that group back, led in scoring (13.7 ppg) and rebounding (6 rpg) by slender 6-4, 175-pound sophomore Troy Huff.
 
Senior Patrick Mitchell, listed as a guard at 6-8, 220, chips in 10.6 ppg and 5 rpg, while leading the team with 44 3-point baskets. Two of his career highlights came against NJIT. In the first-ever meeting between the schools, Mitchell, then a sophomore, scored his career-best 33 points, with 30 of them coming on a school-record 10 threes. Last month, when the teams played in North Dakota, Mitchell reached the 1,000-point mark for his career near the end of the game.
 
Sophomore point guard Aaron Anderson, a backup last year, has started all 23 games this year and is averaging 10.5 points to go with a team-leading 71 assists. He had eight assists and just one turnover the first time around vs. NJIT.
 
Sophomores Jamal Webb, a guard, and center Brandon Brekke round out the usual ND starters. Webb, his team's top scorer with 16 points when the Highlanders played in Grand Forks last month, averages 9.3 points and has a team-best 46 steals. Brekke, who does nearly all of his work near the basket, averages 9 ppg and is second on the team with 5.7 rpg. He is shooting a remarkable .687 from the field (79-115), with every attempt coming from inside the 3-point arc. He has not made the minimum five field goals per game to qualify for the national ranking (he is at 3.8), but is percentage would be second in the nation if he did qualify.
 
NJIT leads the series against North Dakota, 4-2, including last month's defeat. The Fighting Sioux won the first encounter on February 23, 2009, but the Highlanders won the rematch and then ousted North Dakota in the first round of the GWC Tournament. Last year, the Highlanders swept both home (65-49) and away (59-52), before North Dakota came out on top last month.
 
The Highlanders will look to bounce back from a thrilling, yet disappointing 99-97 double-overtime loss on Thursday night against Great West-leading Utah Valley. The game was the first double-overtime game for NJIT in more than a decade, going back to when the Highlanders, competing at the Division II level, lost to East Stroudsburg in the 2001-02 season opener. The 97 points in defeat were the most scored by NJIT in its Division I era (the Highlanders scored 96 in regulation in a January 2011 win against Houston Baptist.
 
The Highlanders, who had six double-figure scorers against Utah Valley, including three off the bench, are paced in scoring and rebounding by Isaiah Wilkerson (16.3 ppg, 6 rpg), followed Chris Flores, who is second in both categories (13.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg).
 
Ryan Woods (8.2 ppg), PJ Miller (7.1 ppg), Lamar Kearse (6.4 ppg), and Arjun Ohri (6.4 ppg) are other scoring threats for NJIT. Center Ryan Regis is coming off a 10-point, 7-rebound, 2-block effort vs. Utah Valley.
 
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.