NEWARK, NJ—NJIT's Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center will be open for men's basketball for the first time in three weeks Tuesday night when the Highlanders entertain streaking Saint Francis U in a 7 pm start.
For those unfamiliar, there are two institutions in NCAA Division I named for the Catholic saint and both compete as members of the Northeast Conference. One, located in Loretto, PA, has rebranded as Saint Francis University and the other, located in Brooklyn, NY, has rebranded as St. Francis Brooklyn.
NJIT's last home game, on December 9, was against St. Francis Brooklyn and the Highlanders won a thriller, 68-66, in front of a standing room only crowd in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
Saint Francis U, playing its 109th varsity basketball season, was picked fourth out of 10 teams in the Northeast Conference preseason coaches' poll. A good deal of the optimism likely stemmed from the fact that SFU returned 100 percent of its scoring from a team that reached the NEC Tournament semifinals, losing by just 3 points to conference regular season champ Robert Morris.
A season ago, Saint Francis got just two wins outside the NEC (2-11). This year the Red Flash are aiming for their 7th non-conference win as they visit NJIT. In addition to the eye-catching win at Rutgers, Saint Francis defeated future NJIT foe
Maryland Eastern Shore;
UAlbany, 69-59 (UAlbany beat NJIT, 65-48, in November); and,
Duquesne, 67-52 (NJIT also beat Duquesne, but by a much closer 84-81).
Guided by second-year head coach
Rob Krimmel, a former player and assistant coach for Saint Francis, the Red Flash are holding their opponents to just over 60 points per game. Only one opponent, Texas (a 78-46 winner) has reached 70 points against the Red Flash and five have scored in the 40s or 50s.
Senior forward
Earl Brown, who just crossed the 1,000-career point barrier, is the top scorer (15.1 ppg) and second-leading rebounder (6.6 rpg). Last season against NJIT, Brown had a spectacular game, scoring 31 points on 13-of-20 shooting from the floor, while grabbing 11 rebounds. The 31 points were a career-best for Brown and the most allowed by NJIT in a game last season.
Sophomore guard
Malik Harmon, the 2013-14 NEC Rookie of the Year averages 10.4 points and
Ronnie Drinnon (6.7 rpg) leads the rebounders.
Facing a strong defensive team in Saint Francis, NJIT will look to regain its shooting form after having its worst 3-point game of the season in a 76-71 loss on Sunday at Lafayette. In that game, the Highlanders were a season-worst 5-for-26 from downtown (19.2 percent).
In contrast, NJIT had made 10 3-point field goals in each of its previous two games, including 10-for-23 (43.5 percent) in its pre-Christmas loss at #7 Villanova.
Going back earlier, 3-point shooting was an integral part of two of NJIT's biggest wins ever. In defeating Duquesne for the program's first-ever win over a team from the powerful Atlantic 10 Conference, the Highlanders shot 12-for-24 from long range and they were even better (11-for-17; 64.7 percent) in stunning #17/#16 Michigan on December 6.
Damon Lynn leads the way, both in scoring (17.6 ppg) and in 3-point shooting, where he is one of the nation's most prolific shooters, having made 57 threes on the season.
Winfield Willis has made 18 3-pointers and
Tim Coleman has 10. As a team, NJIT has made 106 3-pointers through 14 games.
Ky Howard is second on the team in scoring (12.4 ppg) and leads in rebounding (6.2 rpg) and assists (58). Willis is averaging 10.1 ppg and Coleman is coming off his best statistical game of the year, as he put up season highs in points (14) and rebounds (7) at Lafayette.
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.
