NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Information
EASTON, PA—It's back to Pennsylvania for NJIT men's basketball, which ended the pre-Christmas part of its schedule at #7 Villanova last Tuesday night and resumes some 60 miles farther north on Sunday afternoon with a 2 o'clock game at 7-3 Lafayette in Easton.
With the pre-Christmas national TV game at #7 Villanova in the rear-view mirror, there are no more games scheduled for national TV and none of the remaining 16 opponents are likely to break into the National Top 25.
But that doesn't mean things will be easy for NJIT any time soon and this game at Lafayette is a great case in point. The high-scoring Leopards are 7-3, including 4-0 at home in games they've won by an average 14 points per game.
In the all-time series against NJIT, Lafayette is 3-0 in the games played in Easton. In those games, the Leopards have outscored the Highlanders 78.7 ppg to 59.3 ppg (+19.3 ppg).
The series between NJIT and Lafayette began with NJIT's entry into to Division I competition in 2006-07 and has been renewed once a year except in 2008-09. Here are the dates and scores of the three NJIT at Lafayette games played in Easton, PA:
December 3, 2007: Lafayette, 81, NJIT 56
December 8, 2010: Lafayette 72, NJIT 56
January 2, 2013: Lafayette 83, NJIT 66
The Leopards, with 5 starters returning, are 7-3, fast approaching their 2013-14 wins total, when they were 11-20 overall.
This will be Lafayette's last non-conference game of the season before it opens Patriot League competition on Dec. 31 at Army.
Similarly to NJIT, which last played and lost at a top ranked program (at #7 Villanova, 92-67, December 23), the Leopards come off a 96-69 defeat on December 20 at #10 Kansas. T
The Leopards have one of the most respected coaches around,
Fran O'Hanlon, who is in his 20th season as at Lafayette. With 276 wins (5 vs. NJIT), he is the winningest coach both at Lafayette and in Patriot League history.
Lafayette is averaging 78 ppg as a team, topped by
Dan Trist (16.3 ppg),
Seth Hinrichs (12.8 ppg), and
Joey Ptasinski (11.9 ppg). Four others average at lead 4.9 ppg. … Trist (5.8 rpg) is tops on the boards, while
Nick Lindner (8.7 ppg) has an impressive 51 assists and just 16 turnovers taking care of the ball.
The Leopards are shooting better than 50 pct from the floor overall (.503), including 43 pct (leads DI) from 3-pt range (85-198) and 75 pct at the foul line (146-193). Always known for its ability to move the ball under the veteran coach Hanlon, Lafayette leads the Patriot League in both assists-to-turnovers ratio and in assists per game.
For the Highlanders,
Damon Lynn (1725 ppg),
Ky Howard (12.5 ppg), and
Winfield Willis (10.2 rpg) all average double-figure scoring.
Howard, a junior guard, leads NJIT in rebounding (6.2 per game), assists (57) and free throw accuracy (.757). He notched 11 assists vs. #7 Villanova, the most ever in a Division I game for an NJIT player.
Meanwhile, senior captain
Daquan Holiday will have a homecoming when he visits Lafayette as a college player for the final time in his NJIT career. Holiday, who calls Allentown, PA, home, graduated from William Allen High School, about 20 miles from Lafayette's Kirby Sports Center.
Matt Provence is on the call for all 29 games this season, describing the action live on the Highlanders Sports Network here on
www.njithighlanders.com.
