NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Information
 

Game 23	Hampton (8-13) at NJIT (12-10)
Date/Time	Monday, February 2, 2015/7 pm
Location/Arena	Newark, NJ/Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center
Live Video/Audio	Highlander Sports Network w/Matt Provence pbp (subscription charges apply)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	First meeting
Game Notes	NJIT notes / Hampton notes

 

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT men's basketball will play all six of its February games at home in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center and the first visitor of the month is first-time opponent Hampton, which comes up from Virginia for a 7 pm game Monday.
 
Hampton, one of five teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference on the 2014-15 NJIT schedule, comes in having dropped its last five games, all in the MEAC. The most recent game was a 63-60 loss at its nearby conference rival Norfolk State over the weekend on Saturday.
 
A closer look at the five-game skid for the Pirates reveals that three of the losses in the slide have been by margins of either two or three points. Indeed, seven of Hampton's 13 losses on the season have been by margins less than 10 points.
 
Hampton, which will play seven MEAC games, plus the conference tournament, after wrapping up its final non-conference game of the season at NJIT, still has time to get back where it wants and contend in its conference.
 
One area the Pirates will aim to improve is their road record. A 4-3 team in home games, Hampton is 3-9 in away games and 1-1 in neutral site games. That's a stark departure from last season, when the Pirates were 8-7 on the road, including 6-1 in away MEAC contests. They have three away conference games after visiting the Highlanders.
 
Last season, Hampton finished second in the MEAC (13-3 conference record) and was picked for second again in this season's preseason poll of MEAC coaches.
 
The 2013-14 Pirates finished with an 18-13 record that included a postseason berth in the College Basketball Invitational national tournament.
 
Hampton's head coach is Edward Joyner, Jr., who is in his sixth season leading the Pirates and is 10 wins shy of becoming the third coach in program history to reach 100 career victories.
 
Hampton team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 62.5 ppg, -3.7 ppg): Dwight Meikle (6-7, RS Jr; 13.4 ppg; 76.5 pct FTs); Quinton Chievous (6-6, Grad.; 11.3 ppg)
Rebounding (team 37.2 rpg, +1.3 rpg): Meikle (7.7 rpg); Chievous (6.5 rpg); Jervon Pressley (6-8, Jr; 5.1 rpg) 
Assists: Deron Powers (5-11, Jr; 72)
Blocks: Pressley (29); Meikle (26)
Steals: Ke'Ron Brown (6-3, Jr; 32)
 
The redshirt junior Meikle has been a revelation for the Pirates, leading the team in scoring and rebounding after averaging 5.8 points and 4 rebounds through his first two seasons. … Chievous is a grad student at Hampton after using his previous eligibility at Tennessee. … Powers, the MEAC Rookie of the Year in 2012-13, was a first-team preseason all-MEAC pick this year. He is averaging 8 ppg in addition to his team-leading 72 assists … Brian Darden, a 6-2 junior, averages 9.1 points and has made a team-best 39 3-pointers. He was a third-team preseason All-MEAC choice.
 
NJIT comes into the game having had eight days off, with the last contest at South Alabama, a 72-55 win in a game the Highlanders trailed at the half, 31-24.
 
They have played 15 away games and just seven at home, where they are 6-1 on the season. The home-away balance will shift with the six home games in February and the first two come quickly. After hosting Hampton on Monday, the Highlanders will entertain another MEAC team, Delaware State a night later.
 
Tuesday night's game is the second half of a men's/women's basketball doubleheader against Delaware State. The women's game will play tip at 5:30 pm and the men's game is slated for a 7:30 start. The doubleheader is Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night sponsored by the Departments of Athletics and Human Resources, with free tickets faculty and staff and reduced tickets for family and friends.
 
But first things first, NJIT will aim to continue a roll that began on December 30 with a win over Saint Francis University. The victory sparked a five-game winning streak that later included a big win over Ivy League-leading Yale.
 
The streak ended with a loss at the another Ivy, Dartmouth, but the Highlanders have rebounded with two more wins, giving them seven wins in the last eight games.
 
NJIT has four players averaging double-figure scoring, with sophomore Damon Lynn leading the way at 16.9 points per game. He has made 84 3-pointers on the season and has totaled 47 points in the last two games. He also leads the team in assists (77) and steals (38).
 
Junior Winfield Willis is scoring 11 ppg and has made 34 threes, while shooting just under 80 percent the foul line, where he is 51-of-64.
 
Tim Coleman, who has reached double-figure scoring in nine of the last 10 games, including 20 points at South Alabama, averages 10.4 points and has made nearly 55 percent of his shots from the field, including 23-for-49 from 3-point distance. He also gets 4.3 rpg and has 26 blocked shots.
 
The fourth double-figure scorer, junior Ky Howard (11.8 ppg), is unavailable due to injury. He was also averaging a team-best 5.6 rebounds when he was injured in the Yale game.
 
Senior Daquan Holiday is coming off his second career double-double (10 points/10 rebounds) in the win at South Alabama and he has a team-leading 35 blocked shots.
 
Matt Provence will provide play-by-play here on www.njjthighlanders.com. Programming is scheduled to begin around 15 minutes before tipoff.