Men's Basketball | 3/30/2015 2:10:00 PM
NJIT Men's Basketball CollegeInsider.com Tournament Gameday Information
FLAGSTAFF, AZ--It's the last week of the college basketball season and one of the few teams still playing is your NJIT Highlanders, who will take on Northern Arizona in the 2015
CollegeInsider.com semifinals Tuesday night at 9 pm (Eastern), shown live across the nation on CBS Sports Network.
Before the Highlanders challenge Northern Arizona, Evansville and UT Martin will go at it two hours earlier in the other semifinal, also shown on CBS Sports Network. When the final buzzer sounds for NJIT and NAU, the two teams for Thursday night's CIT championship will be revealed.
NJIT flew into Phoenix on Sunday, just a few hours after celebrating Saturday night's 78-73 quarterfinal win at home vs. Canisius. The ride up to Flagstaff offers an analogy to a team's long season.
In the two-hour drive north out of Phoenix, the traveler rises steadily up the mountains and hills through scenery unlike any found in the Eastern United States. The steady climb, from 1,000 feet or so above sea level takes the traveler to more than 7,000 feet above sea level in Flagstaff.
Entering a tournament that began in mid-March with 32 teams, only four are still climbing and after Tuesday, just two will remain to be cut to one on Thursday.
NJIT, which has won a program Division I-record 21 games, will be playing away for the first time since a 72-55 win at South Alabama on January 25. The Highlanders are 6-9 away from home, compared to 15-2 on Fleisher Family Court, where they scored all 3 CIT victories so far (New Hampshire, Cleveland State, Canisius).
Still, the greatest win in program history is one of the six road victories. On December 6, NJIT stunned #17/#16 Michigan, 72-70, and nothing has been the same for Highlander basketball since.
NJIT will dress four players averaging at least 11 points per game at NAU, topped by sophomore guard
Damon Lynn 's 17.6 points per game.
Lynn was named to the Associated Press All-America honorable mention on Monday after being named to the NABC All-District 13 team on Friday, Lynn, is the first player in NJIT history at any level to reach 1,000 career points in his sophomore season; he has made a school-record 1241 3-point baskets this season after making 107 as a freshman (set the school record). In addition to his school-record for 3-pointers, Lynn has 123 assists, the most in NJIT's Division I era. On the other end of the floor, he has a team-leading 542 steals.
Junior
Winfield Willis is next on the season scoring list at 12.4 ppg and he has made 59 3-pointers and is shooting 85 percent at the foul line.
Ky Howard was out of the mix for a long time, missing every game from January 14 through February 28, before returning from injury in the regular season finale. But it was his 3-point basket from the left corner with less than 20 seconds left that broke a 77-77 tie vs. Cleveland State in NJIT's 80-77 win.
The junior averages 11 points and a team-leading 5.8 rebounds, while ranking second in assists (89).
Tim Coleman, who raised his game to a different level beginning with a 12-point, 4-assist, 2-block game before Christmas against then #7 Villanova, is averaging 18.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in the CIT.
A LOOK AT NORTHERN ARIZONA (21-14) Public institution of the State of Arizona; main campus in Flagstaff; founded in 1899; enrollment: more than 22,000 undergraduates …. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education classifies NAU as a research university with high research activity …
Team nickname: Lumberjacks …
Conference: Big Sky
Ben Howland became a head coach here, leading NAU 1994-99 … He moved on to Pitt, UCLA and was named head coach of Mississippi State last week. …
Jamie Dixon was an assistant on Howland's staff at NAU and became head coach at Pitt in 2003, where he remains and has won over 300 games.
The NAU roster is made up of mostly of players from the West (Arizona, California, two from Las Vegas), plus two from Chicago and two from the East (Florida, Virginia). … Head coach
Jack Murphy is 48-52 in his 3rd season … Northern Arizona was 13-5 in the Big Sky Conference, tied for third in the regular standings … The Lumberjacks were 1-1 in the Big Sky Tournament …. Northern Arizona has won 3 CIT games (75-70 at Grand Canyon; 78-73 at fellow Big Sky member Sacramento State; and 74-73 in overtime at home over Kent State.
Northern Arizona team stats and leaders:Scoring (team 68.5 ppg; +1.3 ppg
): Quinton Upshur (6-5, Sr, G; 14.6 ppg);
Kris Yanku (6-4, So, G: 13.6 ppg);
Aseem Dixon (6-0, Sr, G; 12.8 ppg)
Rebounding (team 37.7 rpg; +5.3 rpg):
Jordyn Martin (6-7, Jr, F, 7.2 rpg);
Assists: Yanku (175)
Blocks: Len Springs (6-10, RSr, C; 63)
Steals:
Yanku (39)
3-pt FGM: Dixon (82);
Upshur (77)
Matt Provence will provide live play-by-play on the here on www.njjthighlanders.com. Programming is scheduled to begin at least 15 minutes before tipoff.
