NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Center
 

Game 27	FGCU (15-11; 6-4 A-Sun) at NJIT (15-11; 6-4 A-Sun)
Date/Time	Saturday, February 13, 2016/ 4 pm
Location/Venue	Newark, NJ/ Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center (1,500)
Live Coverage	ESPN3 streaming telecast (WatchESPN app; www.watchespn.com)  Matt Provence (play-by-play); Rob Kennedy (analysis)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Buy Tickets Online	NJITTix.com
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	FGCU, 1-0 (82-78 in overtime at FGCU, January 14, 2016)
Game Notes	NJIT notes / FGCU notes

 
The game will be shown live on ESPN3 (all remaining NJIT basketball games--home and away--will be live on ESPN3)
  
A simple way to find ESPN3 is on NJIT's official athletics website, www.njithighlanders.com. Near the middle of the home page NJIT TV section, click Upcoming Events for a list of scheduled NJIT contests. After finding the event, click the camera icon to the right of the event listing. That brings you to an ESPN3 portal where you can access the desired program.
 
For more details on how to watch NJIT on ESPN3, go to the section at the bottom of this page.
 
Matt Provence, voice of the Highlanders, is on play-by-play with expert analysis from Rob Kennedy.
 
Atlantic Sun Conference Game: Florida Gulf Coast University at NJIT (Saturday, 4 pm)
The proverbial chips are piled in the middle of the table, with the NJIT men hosting their last regular season home game against Atlantic Sun Conference powerhouse Florida Gulf Coast.
 
Both teams enter play with identical records, including 6-4 in A-Sun play. They are a game behind A-Sun co-leaders North Florida, the defending champs, and Jacksonville, who are 7-3 in the conference after both lost on Thursday, while NJIT and FGCU both won.
 
What that means is that the winner of the NJIT-FGCU game can end the day no worse than in second place in the A-Sun, with a chance to move into a tie for first if the two leaders lose. The loser of Saturday's game between the Highlanders and Eagles will find itself in jeopardy of falling into the bottom half of the eight-team standings, which means playing the first conference tournament game on March 1 on the road.
 
NJIT comes into Saturday riding a season-best four-game winning streak, extended with a 74-70 home win over Stetson on Thursday night.
 
FGCU, which stumbled with four losses in a row between January 24 and February 1, has won its last two, topping North Florida and then USC Upstate.
 
In the first-ever men's basketball tilt between the Highlanders and Eagles a month ago on January 14 in Fort Myers, NJIT fell behind by as many as 21 points in the first half and trailed by 12 at halftime.
 
NJIT, which never led in regulation time, forced overtime on a pair of Damon Lynn free throws with less than a second remaining. The Highlanders finally took a lead in overtime and were on top 76-73 with three minutes left in OT. However, the Eagles outscored the visitors from New Jersey 9-2 after that to pull out the victory.
 
A LOOK at FGCU (15-11; 6-4 A-Sun)
Dubbed "Dunk City", the Florida Gulf Coast team became the darlings of March Madness in 2013 when the Eagles became the first #15 seed ever to advance to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. They did it by beating #2 seed Georgetown and #7 seed San Diego State, before finally losing to #3 seed Florida.
 
FGCU has not gone back to the NCAA Tournament, but won 22 games and reached the National Invitation Tournament the following year and won 22 games again last year, while earning a berth in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT)
 
While NJIT and Newark are knew to most people in the Atlantic Sun Conference, Joe Dooley in his third year as head coach of the Eagles, has known about NJIT for a long time. A native of West Orange, NJ, he is a graduate of NJIT's Newark neighbor St. Benedict's Prep, where he graduated as the school's all-time basketball scoring leader. Dooley had 21 years as a Division I assistant (most recently at Kansas) before being named head man at Florida Gulf Coast. He was head coach at East Carolina for four seasons in the 1990s.
 
Florida Gulf Coast was picked second in the A-Sun coaches' preseason poll, one spot ahead of NJIT. Julian DeBose (6-4, R-Sr.) was a unanimous selection on the coaches' preseason All-Conference team, as was NJIT's Damon Lynn.
 
Marc-Eddy Norelia (6-8, R-Jr.) has been A-Sun Player of the Week twice this season, while Zach Johnson (6-2 R-Fr) has two A-Sun Newcomer of the Week awards and Reggie Reid (5-11, Fr.) and Rayjon Tucker (6-5, Fr.) each have an A-Sun Newcomer of the Week award.
 
FGCU team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 77.5 ppg; +6.4 ppg): Marc-Eddy Norelia (6-8, R-Jr; 16.3 ppg); Christian Terrell (6-5, So; 12.8 ppg); Zach Johnson (6-2, R-Fr; 10.8 ppg); Julian DeBose (6-4, R-Sr; 9.4 ppg)
Rebounding (team 40.9 rpg; +4.5 rpg): Norelia (8.8 rpg); Demetris Morant (6-9, R-Jr.; 6.1 rpg); Assists: Reggie Reid (5-11, Fr; 92); Zach Johnson (6-2, R-Fr; 80)
Blocks: Norelia (23); Morant (20)
Steals: Terrell (34)
3-pt FGM: Filip Cvjeticanin (6-9, R-Sr; 39)
 
A LOOK at NJIT (15-11; 6-4 A-Sun)
The Highlanders ran their winning streak to a season-best four in a row with a come-from-behind 74-70 home win over Stetson on Thursday night..
 
Down 14 points before four minutes had come off the game clock, the Highlanders did not take their first lead until Lynn made a free throw with 2:04 remaining.
 
The deadly-accurate Lynn later hit an NBA-distance 3-pointer and he and Ky Howard sunk three foul shots in the last seven seconds to seal the victory.
 
Lynn led all scorers with 30 points (19 in the second half) and Howard finished with 20 points (12 in the second half), 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals. Terrence Smith, who missed the preceding four games due to injury, came off the NJIT bench for 12 points on 6-for-8 shooting,
 
NJIT, which will honor Howard. Emmanuel Tselentakis, and Winfield Willis in pregame Senior Day ceremonies, will play its last three regular season games away from home.
 
NJIT team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 76.5 ppg; +2.2 ppg): Damon Lynn (5-11 Jr; 18.5 ppg); Tim Coleman (6-5, Jr; 13.9 ppg); Ky Howard (6-4, Sr; 13.2 ppg);
Rebounding (team 35 rpg; -1.5 rpg): Coleman (7.2 rpg); Howard (4.5 rpg);
Assists: Howard (115)
Blocks: Coleman (23)
Steals: Lynn (43); Coleman (40)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (93)
 
How to watch NJIT sports programming on ESPN3
ESPN3 is the live platform for at least 23 NJIT men's basketball games this season. Every NJIT game in the Atlantic Sun Conference throughout the regular season and into the A-Sun postseason tournament will be covered on ESPN3. 
 
ESPN3 is ESPN's live multi-screen sports network.  It is accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. 
 
The network is currently available to more than 99 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. 
 
ESPN3 is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks. That means devices served by NJIT's on-campus computer network can link directly to ESPN3.
 
Others can access ESPN3 through WatchESPN if they receive ESPN programming from an affiliated service provider. Those users need to provide the username and password they use in online communication with their regular service provider (can usually be found on regular billing material from the service provider).
 
Here is a link to Frequently Asked Questions about WatchESPN.