NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Center
 

Game 12	NJIT  (6-5) at St. John's (7-4)
Date/Time	Sunday, December 20, 2015/ Noon
Location/Venue	Queens, NY/ Carnesecca Arena (5,602)
Live Television/Audio	FS1 (FOX Sports 1 channel finder and FAQ) national telecast  Live audio: www.njithighlanders.com Matt Provence (play-by-play)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	St. John's leads, 4-0 (last: St. John's won, 77-58, on Nov. 14, 2014)
Game Notes	NJIT notes / St. John's notes

 
The game is being shown live on FS1 (FOX Sports 1), the national 24-hour, multi-sport cable channel arm of FOX Sports. Here is a link to the FS1 channel finder and FAQ
 
Matt Provence, voice of the Highlanders, will have the audio call of the game live on the Highlander Sports Network, which can be found on www.njithighlanders.com.
 
NJIT (6-5) at ST. JOHN'S (7-4) SUNDAY at NOON
NJIT plays the second of its two scheduled regular season games against teams from the powerful BIG EAST Conference when the Highlanders make the trip to Queens, NY, to challenge St. John's in a noon start on Sunday, with the contest televised live on FS1.
 
St. John's has been the marquee program of college basketball in the New York Metropolitan area for decades and one of SJU's all-time greats, Chris Mullin, has returned to his alma mater as head coach this year after a Hall of Fame playing career, followed by a decade working in the front offices of two NBA teams.
 
Mullin, the all-time leading scorer in St. John's history, led the team to the 1985 NCAA Final Four and was BIG EAST Player of the Year three times, as well as being a consensus first-team All-America as a senior. He had a 16-year playing career in the NBA and his number was retired by the Golden State Warriors, where he spent 13 of his seasons.
 
He later ran the Warriors basketball operation as Executive Vice President and subsequently served as an advisor to the Chairman of the Sacramento Kings.
 
After some early bumps in the road, St. John's recently won three in a row and four of five before losing Friday night vs. Incarnate Word. The latest win came over longtime rival Syracuse, 84-72, on December 13 at Madison Square Garden.
 
St. John's team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 66.6 ppg; -2 ppg): Federico Mussini (6-1, Fr; 13.6 ppg); Durand Johnson (6-6, Gr; 11.4 ppg); Ron Mvouika (6-6, Gr; 8.9 ppg); Yankuba Sima (6-11, Fr; 8.7 ppg); Christian Jones (6-7, Jr; 8.2 ppg)
Rebounding (team 38.6 rpg; +1.1 rpg): Sima (6.6 rpg); Jones (5.3 rpg); Felix Balamou (6-4, Sr; 5.1 rpg)
Assists: Mussini (29)
Blocks: Sima (40)
Steals: Mussini (14); Johnson (14)
3-pt FGM: Mussini (25)
 
Common 2015-16 Opponent
NJIT and St. John's have one opponent in common, St. Francis Brooklyn, which battled St. John's to the wire before losing 63-56 at the Garden on December 6 and then fell to NJIT in Brooklyn, 92-86 in overtime on December 10.
 
Series vs. St. John's
The Highlanders have faced St. John's four times, all in Carnesecca Arena on the St. John's campus. The most recent game was in last season's opener for both teams. The Red Storm dominated the first half 37-19 and NJIT spent the whole second half trying to catch up before losing 77-58.
 
The Highlanders fared better in the previous game at St. John's on December 1, 2012. In that one, NJIT took a 35-23 halftime lead and the Highlanders still led as late as the 6:25 mark of the second half. St. John's scored the game's last 7 points and won 57-49.
 
Previous game this season vs. BIG EAST (Providence, Nov. 23)
--NJIT, which is searching for its first-ever win against a team from the BIG EAST (0-21 since 2006-07) held its own earlier this season at Providence, dropping a hard-fought 83-76 verdict on November 23. The Friars, unranked at the time, have risen to #14 in both the AP and USA Today latest national polls.
 
Some quiet time
The Highlanders are visiting St. John's during a relatively quiet patch in the NJIT schedule. After playing 11 games from the opener on November 14 at then-#2 Kentucky through December 12 at Columbia, the Highlanders have been off for exam week.
 
After visiting St. John's they will go more than a week before hosting Stony Brook (Dec. 28).
 
Back to work
The activity ramps up around New Year's. After hosting Stony Brook, NJIT will take its longest bus trip of the season, visiting Saint Francis in Loretto, PA, more than 280 miles to the west of Newark, on December 30. On January 2, the Highlanders will entertain UMBC and they'll close out the non-conference schedule at Yale on January 6.
 
After that, NJIT plays its inaugural season as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, with 14 A-Sun games from Jan. 9 (home vs. USC Upstate) through Feb. 25 (at USC Upstate). The A-Sun Tournament held at campus sites, follows from March 1 to March 6, with the A-Sun Tournament winner going to the NCAA Tournament.
 
A LOOK AT NJIT (6-5)
The Highlanders have had more than a week to digest their most recent game, a 65-56 loss at Columbia on Dec. 12. That loss in Manhattan was NJIT's lowest scoring game of the season. And it came 48 hours after the highest scoring game of the year for the Highlanders, a 92-86 overtime win in Brooklyn over St, Francis. The win at St. Francis marked the fifth time NJIT scored at least 80 in a game and the fourth time the Highlanders scored at least 89.
 
NJIT team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 76.2 ppg; +2.5 ppg): Damon Lynn (5-11 Jr; 17.3 ppg); Ky Howard (6-4, Sr; 14.2 ppg); Tim Coleman (6-5, Jr; 13.9 ppg)  
Rebounding (team 35.4 rpg; -2.3 rpg): Coleman (7.4 rpg); Howard (5.6 rpg);
Assists: Howard (46); Lynn (33)
Blocks: Vlad Shustov (6-9, So; 8); Coleman (7)
Steals: Coleman (19); Howard (11); Lynn (10)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (39)