Women's Basketball | 1/19/2015 11:00:00 AM
The NJIT women will play their second game in a span of three days, visiting Brown on Tuesday in an 11:30am matinee as the Bears host "What I Want To Be Day" in the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The Highlanders, who dropped their last two contests against Ivy League opponents (Columbia 45-38) and most recently at Harvard (66-54), are in a four-game stretch against teams from the Ivy. The run of Ivy opposition ends on Saturday, January 24, when the Highlanders host Penn at 2 pm in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
NJIT has two players averaging double-figures— forward
Leah Horton (10.6ppg) and guard
Alyssa Albanese (10.2ppg) and. Albanese tops the team in two categories—assists (84) and steals (23) while Horton is the team leader with 138 rebounds (6.9rpg).
Senior center
Nicole Maticka is third on the team in scoring at 8.3ppg and paces the Highlanders in three-point field goals made (25) and total blocks (45), while shooting 47 percent from the field (61-for-130) and three-point range (25-for-53).
The Bears, who returned to action on January 16 after a 12-day layoff, dropped a 66-49 decision against Yale in the Ivy League opener for both squads. Jordin Alexander paced the Brown attack with 12 points and Ellise Sharpe posted her third consecutive double-figure performance.
Brown, under the direction of former Boston College standout,
Sarah Behn, who replaced Jean Marie Burr after the legendary coach retired after the 2013-14 season, was picked to finish eighth out of eight teams in the 2014-15 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll. Behn joined Brown after spending the last three seasons as head coach of UMass Lowell, where she guided the Riverhawks' transition from Division II to Division I play in 2013-14.
Alexander, the Bears junior guard, leads the team in three categories—scoring (16.6ppg), assists (46) and steals (28). Senior captain Sophie Bikofsky, who led the nation last season in three-point field goal percentage (.486) and set the single-season record at Brown for three-point field goals made (86), is averaging 13.4ppg while connecting on a team-leading 45 three-point field goals made. Freshman forward Janie White leads the team on the boards with 99 rebounds (7.1rpg) and 17 total blocks.
This will mark the fifth all-time meeting between the two teams, with the Highlanders holding a 3-1 record since first competing against the Bears in 2010-11. In the four meetings, the score has been decided by 5 or less points, including two games determined on game-winning baskets.
In 2012-13, Brown's
Sophie Bikofsky hit the game winner with 3.5 seconds remaining on the clock, breaking a 51-51 tie, as Brown defeated visiting NJIT, 53-51, and in the teams' first meeting, NJIT's
Jessica Gerald's layup down the middle of the paint with 2.8 seconds left lifted NJIT to a 63-61 come-from-behind win over Brown.
Michael Ventola will have the live play-by-play call here on njithighlanders.com.
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