NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Information HANOVER, NH—NJIT men's basketball will try to make it six in a row when it visits first-time opponent Dartmouth for a 3 pm game Saturday in bitterly cold northern New England.
High temperatures in Hanover are forecast to be in the mid-teens Saturday afternoon after dipping to as low as -5 degrees (Fahrenheit) overnight Friday into Saturday.
The Highlanders, meanwhile, have been anything but cold, having assembled their longest winning streak since February 6 through March 2, 2013.
A win in the first-ever meeting with Dartmouth would match the longest winning streak (6) since NJIT began facing Division I competition in 2006-07. The DI-best six-game run took place from February 1 through February 19, 2011.
Included in NJIT's ongoing streak of five wins was a 78-71 home win over Yale, marking the first win for the Highlanders against an Ivy League opponent after 11 tries dating back to that first DI season in 2006-07. In fairness, nine of those defeats vs. Ivy foes came between 2006 and 2010, when all wins were hard to come by in making the difficult transition to Division I.
DARTMOUTH NOTES--Coach
Paul Cormier is in his 12th season at Dartmouth (2nd tour) and 19th season as a college head coach … Cormier piloted Dartmouth from 1984 to 1991. Moving on to Fairfield as head coach, he guided the Stags from 1991 to 1998. Recovering from an injury-filled regular season, Fairfield won the 1997 MAAC Tournament, reaching the NCAAs as a 16 seed. Facing Dean Smith-coached and star-laded North Carolina, Fairfield fought the Tar Heels to the end, finally falling, 82-74. … Leaving Fairfield in 1998, he spent more than a decade scouting and coaching in the NBA before returning to his roots at Dartmouth in 2010-11. Since then, his teams have either improved or matched their wins total from the previous year.
--The Big Green are 6-8, having dropped the last two (57-46 in the Ivy opener to Harvard and then 55-52 at neighboring Vermont.
--Dartmouth and NJIT have two common opponents:
Maine (lost to Dartmouth, 74-51; lost to NJIT, 90-86) and
UMass Lowell (lost to Dartmouth, 69-48; beat NJIT twice, 63-61 at NJIT; 71-67 in Lowell).
Team stats and leaders:Scoring (team 61.9 ppg, +0.5 ppg):
Alex Mitola (5-11, Jr; 14 ppg; 43-106 on 3s);
Connor Boehm (6-7, Jr.; 11.3 ppg; .550 FG pct);
Gabas Maldunas (6-9, Sr.; 10.6 ppg)
Rebounding (team 34.2 rpg, +2.4 rpg):
Maldunas (6.6 rpg);
Boehm (6 rpg)
Assists: Malik Gill (5-9, Jr; 48);
Mitola (39)
Blocks: Maldunas (25)
Steals: Gill (21)
NJIT's scoring leaders for the season are sophomore
Damon Lynn (16.8 ppg), junior
Ky Howard (11.8 ppg), and junior
Winfield Willis (10.9 ppg). Howard, a key starter who also leads NJIT in rebounding and assists, is out due to injury.
Sophomore
Tim Coleman is one point shy of a double-figure average with 189 points in 19 games. He is playing exceptionally well over the last seven games in a streak that began with 12 points at #7 Villanova and has seen him do a bit of everything while scoring at least 12 and as many as 22 each time out.
Matt Provence will provide play-by-play on the live streaming audio, accompanied by live streaming video on the Highlanders Sports Network here on
www.njjthighlanders.com. Programming is scheduled to begin around 15 minutes before tipoff
.
