Women's Basketball | 12/10/2014 5:53:00 PM
The NJIT women's basketball team will close out its four game homestand Thursday hosting LIU Brooklyn at 7pm in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
The Highlanders, 5-5 on the season, will close out its home portion of its schedule for the month of December Thursday and plays its next five on the road before returning home for the New Year.
NJIT comes into Thursday's contest with a 3-0 mark against Northeast Conference teams this season, with wins over Wagner (60-54), St. Francis Brooklyn (57-50 (OT), and Fairleigh Dickinson (68-64).
The Highlanders are coming off a 62-47 loss to visiting Hofstra, after the Highlanders won two straight at home. Before the loss against Hofstra, NJIT topped visiting Wagner, 60-54, on December 2 and followed up with a 52-48 victory against Binghamton three days later.
NJIT is led by senior point guard
Alyssa Albanese, who is averaging 11.2ppg and is three assists shy the NJIT Division I record (275) held by Ivana Seric (class of 2011).
Sophomore forward
Leah Horton is averaging 10.9ppg and tops the team in rebounds (84) averaging 8.4rpg. Classmate
Alana Dudley, who has started the last contests for the Highlanders, is averaging 10.1ppg while sharing team-high honors with Albanese with 12 three-point field goals made.
Senior guard
Martina Matejcikova is coming off a season-high 19 points against Hofstra, is averaging 8.3ppg and 3.9rpg for the Highlanders.
Nicole Maticka set the NJIT Division I career block record Tuesday, with her lone block coming in the first half of play, for a total of 180 career blocks, surpassing
Uju Nwankwo's record of (179). Maticka has a team-high 17 blocks on the season.
LIU Brooklyn NotesLIU Brooklyn (0-6) heads to NJIT looking for the teams' first win of the 2014 season. The Blackbirds are coming off a 54-45 road loss at Columbia on December 7, led by senior Letava Whippy, who scored 12 points.
The Blackbirds hold a 2-1 all-time record against the Highlanders. In the last meeting between the two teams last season on November 21,
Alana Dudley drove the lane and scored the final two points of the game with :00.2 remaining, giving the Highlanders a dramatic 60-58 victory over LIU Brooklyn.
LIU Brooklyn, who finished with a 9-21 overall mark last season, was selected to finish eighth out of 10 teams in the 2014-15 Northeast Preseason Poll.
The Blackbirds are led by junior guard Sophie Bhasin, the teams' only double-figure scorer this season, who is averaging 11.2ppg. Senior guard Whippy paces the Blackbirds with 8.7rpg and team-high 15 steals.
Fans can follow all the action live on
www.njithighlanders.com , which will carry a live video stream and webcast play-by-play and commentary from
Michael Ventola, as well as an in-game real-time stat feed. Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. with tip-off set for 7 p.m.
