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NEWARK, NJ—The challenges continue for the NJIT men's basketball team when it hosts LIU Brooklyn, winner of the last three Northeast Conference championships and the NCAA Tournament bids that accompanied the title in a 7 pm game Thursday in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The Highlanders, who lost to Seton Hall in the Prudential Center downtown on Tuesday night, 71-55, are looking to get back to the play that helped them win 6 of 8 before falling to the Pirates.
 
It certainly isn't an easy task against LIU Brooklyn, which last year became the first team in history to take three straight titles in the NEC, which came into being in 1981. The Blackbirds were regular season champs in 2010-11 and 2011-12, before finishing fourth last season ahead of taking the NEC Tournament crown.
 
This season, coach Jack Perri's squad returns one starter, but he's a special one, senior point guard Jason Brickman, who led the nation in assists last season and is leading again this year with a remarkable 10.1 a game. To help put Brickman's output in perspective, he leads second-place Chaz Williams of UMass by 2.5 assists per game. The next five national assists leaders after Williams are separated by a total of 0.3 assists per game. Brickman also averages 9.9 points per game.
 
With Brickman distributing the ball, LIU Brooklyn has four men averaging between 11.8 and 11.3 points per game, led by 6-foot-4 junior wing player Gilbert Parga at 11.8 ppg. The others are: 6-foot-6 junior  Landon Atterberry (11.6 ppg); sophomore forward EJ Reed (11.4 ppg); and, junior guard Gerrell Martin (11.3 ppg). Parga and Atterberry are junior college transfers in their first seasons with LIU Brooklyn.
 
The Blackbirds are 2-6 and have one foe in common with the Highlanders so far. LIU took on Seton Hall in the Prudential Center on December 5 and lost 92-81, while NJIT dropped its decision in the same setting, 71-55, a week later.
 
Anyone thinking the Blackbirds are down, might take a closer look at who beat them. In addition to Seton Hall, Indiana, one of college basketball's elite programs and ranked 23rd in the nation, needed every advantage, including a friendly home crowd of 17,472 to nip LIU Brooklyn by a single point, 73-72, on November 12. Three other losses came in three games in three days in Irvine, CA, as part of the 2K Sports Classic November 22 to 24.
 
NJIT and LIU Brooklyn did not meet last season, but the previous two games were high-scoring and action-filled. On December 28, 2010 in Newark, the Blackbirds came from behind at the half for an 89-82 win. On December 2011 in Brooklyn, NJIT trailed by 17 points at halftime and by 21 early in the second half, but later rallied to within four points of the lead before falling, 84-74.
 
This year, NJIT, which started four first-year Highlanders against Seton Hall, will look to stay above the .500 mark and part of that will be scoring points consistently. After topping the 80-point mark in four of its six wins, NJIT has slowed a bit, scoring a season-low 55 points in 3 of the last 4 games. Two of those, home vs. Albany and then at Seton Hall, resulted in losses, while the Highlanders pulled out a low-scoring win last Saturday against UMass Lowell.
 
The higher scoring early on was achieved with balanced productivity. In the first seven games, NJIT had at least three double-figure scorers each time. That run ended against UAlbany, when the Highlanders had one double-figure scorer and lost. They bounced back with four double-figure scorers in a win over Maine, but had two in the win over UMass Lowell and one in the loss to Seton Hall.
 
Freshman Damon Lynn, who has scored at least 14 points and as many as 27 in 10 of the 11 games, leads the scorers with 18.6 ppg. Sophomore Terrence Smith is next at 12.7 ppg and he is the leading rebounder with 5.5 rpg. Winfield Willis, Ky Howard, and Tim Coleman are all between 9.0 and 8.5 ppg. Coleman is second in rebounding, with 5.2 rpg.
 
Matt Provence, voice of the Highlanders, will have all the play-by-play action live here on www.NJITHighlanders.com. Matt's coverage begins at least 15 minutes before tipoff.