Men's Basketball | 12/2/2014 9:48:00 PM

Game 7	NJIT (2-4) at UMass Lowell (5-2)
Date | Time	December 3, 2014 | 7pm
Location	Lowell, MA - Costello Athletic Center
Game Notes	NJIT Game Notes | UMass Lowell Game Notes
Live Video	AmericaEast TV
Live Audio (free)	Highlanders Network
Live Stats	Live Stats

LOWELL, MA--NJIT men's basketball continues its stretch of 9 road games in 10 contests with a trip to northeastern Massachusetts for a Wednesday rematch at 7 pm against suddenly-hot UMass Lowell (5-2), which brings a 5-game winning streak into Wednesday night's contest.
 
The second game in the River Hawks' streak was a November 22 contest in Newark, won by UMass Lowell, 63-61, over the Highlanders.
 
UMass Lowell, in its second season of Division I competition, lost its first two games, but got started on the right track with a 3-point win at Sacred Heart. Moving down the Atlantic Coast, the River Hawks scored a 2-point win at NJIT two days later. Then, the following day, UMass Lowell invaded Fordham and upended the Rams from the Atlantic 10, 64-57. Thus, UMass Lowell played 3 away games in a span of 73 hours, winning all three.
 
Next, the River Hawks came home and trounced Division III Mt. Ida and then they went to Boston University and won again, 69-59, Sunday afternoon.
 
A Quick Look at UMass Lowell
The River Hawks are early in their second season of Division I competition, as they reclassify from NCAA Division II, where they were a power, winning the national championship in 1987-88 and reaching the 2004 Elite Eight and 2006 Round of 16 at the DII level. … Pat Duquette (15-20, 2nd year) is the head coach. Previously, he was associate head coach at Northeastern for 3 years after 13 years at Boston College under long-time head coach Al Skinner.
 
Last season, its first in Division I competition, UMass Lowell finished 10-18, but a closer look tells a more complete story. The River Hawks began 1-11, with the only win coming against Division III Mt. Ida. Over the last 16 games, they were 9-7, including 8-8 in their new conference, the America East, and a non-conference win over NJIT. Earlier, in the 1-11 start, the River Hawks had lost to the Highlanders.
 
Facing key graduation losses from last year's team, the two top scorers this year are freshmen. Jahad Thomas, a redshirt freshman out injured all last season, leads the way at 15.3 ppg and a terrific 63.4 field goal percentage.  His 6.1 rpg also tops the team … True freshman Lance Crawford is averaging 9.3 ppg. … Kerry Weldon, a redshirt senior, is getting 5.1 rpg … UMass Lowell graduate student guard Marco Banegas-Flores has a family tie to NJIT basketball. His older brother, Chris Flores, a 4-year starter at NJIT, graduated in 2013 as the program's all-time Division I career scorer with 1,724 points. Chris is in his second season of professional basketball in Germany. Marco played 3 years at Northeastern. After a slow start, Marco (8.7 ppg overall) is averaging 12 ppg in the last 4 (including a season-high 15 pts at NJIT. Banegas-Flores is 16-29 (55.2 pct) from the field in the last 4, including 8-for-10 on 3-pointers.
 
Damon Lynn, the sophomore guard, continues to lead NJIT in scoring average (17.7 ppg), while junior Ky Howard continues the terrific start to his junior season. He is averaging 12.8 points, making 63.2 percent of his shots and averaging a team-best 7.2 rebounds, an extraordinary average for a guard. He has led or shared the team rebounding lead in all five games to date. Lynn and Howard are also the two top assist men on NJIT, with 23 and 17, respectively.
 
As with all Highlander games this season, Matt Provence will have the play-by-play call live from Lowell on www.njithighlanders.com.