NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Information
 

Game 7	Maine Fort Kent (4-6 as of 11/27) at NJIT  (3-3)
Date/Time	Sunday, November 29, 2015/ 2 pm
Location/Venue	Newark, NJ/ Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center (1,500)
Live Video/Audio	Highlander Sports Network ; Matt Provence (play-by-play) Subscription event ($6.95)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	NJIT leads 2-0 (last: NJIT won 89-55 on Feb. 16, 2015).
Game Notes	NJIT notes

 
The NJIT-UMFK tilt is the only men's basketball game this season offered exclusively on www.niithighlanders.com, with Matt Provence handling play-by-play duties along with live video carried over the Highlanders' Stretch Internet portal.
 
To view the game, go to www.njithighlanders.com. Near the middle of the home page, click "Upcoming Events" in the gray bar; then find the Men's Basketball vs. Maine-Fort-Kent line and click the red camera icon to the right of the game listing. After reaching the Stretch Internet portal, click the icon under Watch/Listen/Stats and follow the instructions for purchasing the live video/audio stream (subscription price for the game is $6.95)
 
HIGHLANDERS HOST MAINE FORT KENT SUNDAY AFTERNOON
NJIT's only game this season against a non-Division I opponent brings the University of Maine Fort Kent to Newark for a 2 pm game Sunday in the Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The Highlanders, who are playing their most demanding men's basketball schedule ever, return to Newark following a pair of hard-fought road losses earlier in the week against teams that played in the 2015 NCAA Division I Tournament.
 
NJIT was 3-1 with three straight quality wins, when it visited unbeaten Providence of the BIG EAST Conference Monday night in Rhode Island on national television. The game was a battle, but the Friars prevailed, 83-76.
 
The quality of NJIT's effort on the road against Providence was further validated when the Friars went to the Wooden Legacy Tournament in California and beat Evansville on Thanksgiving, 74-64, and then topped #11/#10 Arizona in the same tournament on Friday (6-0 PC will take on #3/#4 Michigan State for the Wooden Legacy championship on Sunday).
 
On Friday night, NJIT visited three-time defending America East Conference champion UAlbany and took a painful 74-73 defeat when UAlbany broke a tie on a free throw with 1.2 seconds remaining.
 
THE SERIES
NJIT leads the all-time series against UMFK 2-0, with wins in each of the last two Februarys in the Fleisher Athletic Center. … Both scores were lopsided in favor of the Highlanders, who captured the 2014  meeting 84-45 margin and topped the Bengals by a similar score, 89-55, in February 2015.
 
A LOOK AT MAINE FORT KENT (4-6 as of 11/27)
UMFK is aligned athletically with the United States Collegiate Athletic Association, a group of small colleges that includes some members who hold dual membership in NCAA Division III or the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
 
Fort Kent, located at the top of Maine bordering two Canadian provinces, is site of the northern terminus of US Route 1 and Fort Kent's distance from the rest of the United States leads to some grinding road trips. For example, the Bengals' game at NJIT on Sunday will be their third in three days after playing in a tournament in Boston on Friday and Saturday.
 
The team's star player is junior post player Joe McCloskey, who was 1st team USCAA All-American last season and who had 13 points and 12 rebounds last season when Maine Fort Kent played at NJIT. In this season's first 10 games, he has topped 30 points twice and 20 points four other times.
 
Sharp-shooting Mauro Vicic, a senior from Croatia, also scored 13 vs. NJIT last season.
 
Maine Fort Kent is led by second-year head coach Tom Bird, a Maine native who spent two years with successful NCAA Division I programs before taking over the Bengals. He was assistant video coordinator at Florida in 2012-13 and Director of Basketball Operations at North Dakota State in 2013-14. Florida, of course, is a national power and North Dakota State was 26-7, including a win over Oklahoma in the opening round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
 
UMFK team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 69.9 ppg; -5.2 ppg): Joe McCloskey (6-7, Jr; 22.2 ppg); Travis Harlin (6-6, Jr; 8.3 ppg); Roosevelt Smith (6-4, Jr; 8 ppg)
Rebounding (team 38.4 rpg; +12.2 rpg): McCloskey (6-8, Jr; 8.3 rpg); Smith (7.2 rpg)
Assists: Qaadir Ali (6-2, Jr; 37)
Blocks: McCloskey (7)
Steals: McCloskey (8)
3-pt FGM: Jake Rioux (5-10, So; 15); Mauro Vicic (6-4, Sr; 13)
 
A LOOK AT NJIT
NJIT finds itself in a circumstance the Highlanders haven't faced since late last December, when they lost back-to-back, falling to #7 Villanova two days before Christmas and then losing at Lafayette, which would go on to win the Patriot League and play in the NCAA Tournament on December 28.
 
Next, the Highlanders defeated Saint Francis (PA), sparking a five-game winning streak. In fact, NJIT posted a 16-3 the rest of last season, never losing consecutive games.
 
This season, the Highlanders lost to now-#1 Kentucky in the season opener, but bounced back with three quality wins, bringing their record since last season's Lafayette game to 19-4. Then came this week's back-to-back losses at Providence and UAlbany, the first losing "streak" in nearly a year.
 
Sunday's contest against Maine Fort Kent begins a stretch of three home games in a row for the Highlanders, who were 15-2 on Fleisher Family Court last season and are 2-0 there this year with quality wins over Boston U and Lafayette.
 
NJIT will host UMass Lowell on December 5 and first-time foe Kent State on December 7.
 
NJIT team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 72.7 ppg; -1.1 ppg): Damon Lynn (5-11 Jr; 20.2 ppg); Ky Howard (6-4, Sr; 13.2 ppg); Tim Coleman (6-5, Jr; 11.2 ppg)
Rebounding (team 33.2 rpg; -4.3 rpg): Coleman (6 rpg); Howard (5.5 rpg);
Assists: Howard (21); Winfield Willis (6-0, Sr; 16); Lynn (16)
Blocks: Vlad Shustov (6-9, So; 4)
Steals: Coleman (12); Howard (8); Willis (8)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (24)