Game Preview (Video)

NJIT Men's Basketball Gameday Center
 

Game 28	NJIT (16-11; 7-4 A-Sun) at North Florida (18-10 7-4 A-Sun)
Date/Time	Thursday, February 18, 2016/ 7 pm
Location/Venue	Jacksonville, FL/ UNF Arena (5,800)
Live Coverage	ESPN3 streaming telecast (WatchESPN app; www.watchespn.com)  Live audio: www.njithighlanders.com; Matt Provence, pbp
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
Social Media	@njithighlanders
All-Time Series	UNF leads, 1-0 in DI (Most recent: UNF won, 94-80, at NJIT, January 24, 2016)
Game Notes	NJIT notes / North Florida notes

 
The game will be shown 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, will have the audio call of the game live and free of charge on the Highlander Sports Network, which can be found on www.njithighlanders.com (no charge). Access the audio feed by clicking the speaker icon on the NJIT TV Upcoming Events listing for the North Florida game.  

Atlantic Sun Conference Game: NJIT at North Florida (Thursday, 7 pm)
The men's basketball teams in the Atlantic Sun Conference have played 11 of their 14 scheduled regular season games and three teams are tied for first place with records of 7-4.
 
Two of those three will collide on Thursday night in Jacksonville, when NJIT visits the University of North Florida.
 
How we reached this "king of the hill" collision is remarkable in its own right.
 
UNF, the 2014-15 A-Sun champion, was favored to repeat when the conference coaches were polled in preseason. NJIT, which was entering its first season as a member of the A-Sun, was picked third in the same poll.
 
The champion Ospreys more than lived up to their advance billing, winning eight in a row from January 2 through January 30. Included was a 7-0 start in A-Sun play, with a convincing 94-80 win at NJIT on January 24.
 
In that game, UNF made 20 3-point baskets, the most the Ospreys have ever scored in a game and the most the Highlanders have ever allowed.
 
More important, when North Florida left Newark, which was digging out from under Winter Storm Jonas, which hit that weekend, the Ospreys were 6-0 in the A-Sun. They extended that to 7-0 with a win over Florida Gulf Coast in the next game. NJIT, meanwhile lost its next game to stand at 2-4 in the A-Sun.
 
Then, on February 1, UNF, which had started the season 11-0 in home games, took a blow, losing at home to Stetson. After that, the Ospreys went on the road and lost three A-Sun games in a row, allowing their crosstown rival Jacksonville and upstart NJIT to catch up in the standings. Since dropping to 2-4 to begin A-Sun play, NJIT has won five in a row, its longest winning streak of the season.
 
Prior to this season's meeting in Newark, which was delayed a day by the snow storm, the programs faced off once before, but that was when both competed as members of NCAA Division II. UNF defeated the Highlanders (73-63) on January 3, 2004 in the consolation game of a tournament hosted by Florida Gulf Coast.
 
A LOOK at NORTH FLORIDA (18-10; 7-4 A-Sun)
The Ospreys, who won the 2015 A-Sun Tournament playing three games in UNF Arena, are happy to return home after losing three in a row this month on the road..
 
Picked to finish first by seven of the eight A-Sun coaches in preseason, the Ospreys had four players unanimously picked by the coaches for the Preseason All-Conference team, headed by Preseason Player of the Year Beau Beech (6-9, Sr). He is joined as a unanimous pick by junior guard Dallas Moore (6-1, Jr); DeMarcus Daniels (6-8, Sr.), the 2014-15 A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year; and Chris Davenport (6-8, Jr), last year's leading scorer and rebounder.
 
Matthew Driscoll has been head coach of the Ospreys since 2009. Before that, he was an assistant coach at several Division I programs, including Baylor, where he served for 6 years immediately before going to UNF.
 
In this season's first meeting, UNF used only seven players, but that was plenty, as Moore was virtually unstoppable, scoring 29 points and passing off 8 assists, while four others scored in double-figures. Beech hit 6 of 11 shots from downtown and finished with 20 points.
 
North Florida team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 85 ppg; +5.7 ppg): Dallas Moore (6-1, Jr; 19.8 ppg); Beau Beech (6-9, Sr; 16 ppg); Trent Mackey (6-3, R-Sr; 12.5 ppg); Demarcus Daniels (6-8, Sr; 12 ppg); Chris Davenport (6-8, Jr; 11.9 ppg)
Rebounding (team 34.8 rpg; -4.3 rpg): Davenport (7.3 rpg); Beech (6.6 rpg); Daniels (5.3 rpg)
Assists: Moore (163)
Blocks: Daniels (64); Davenport (54)
Steals: Beech (34)
3-pt FGM: Mackey (97); Beech (86)
 
A LOOK at NJIT (16-11; 7-4 A-Sun)
After winning the last three contests in its active 5-game winning streak at home, NJIT will play the remainder of the regular season on the road.
 
This weekend's trip sends the Highlanders to Jacksonville, FL, taking on North Florida on Thursday and Jacksonville on Saturday. The three teams enter play on Thursday tied for first place in the A-Sun (Jacksonville hosts USC Upstate on Thursday).
 
The Highlanders used one of their best defensive efforts of the year to throttle fellow contender Florida Gulf Coast, 68-59, last Saturday.
 
A-Sun co-Player of the Week Ky Howard celebrated his Senior Day with 21 points and 10 rebounds vs. FGCU, while Damon Lynn and Tim Coleman each added 16.
 
A comparable defensive effort will be in order if NJIT hopes to reverse the results it had the first time it faced UNF this season. The Ospreys are 23-3 on their UNF Arena floor since the start of last season,
 
NJIT team stats and leaders:
Scoring (team 76.2 ppg; +2.5 ppg): Damon Lynn (5-11 Jr; 18.4 ppg); Tim Coleman (6-5, Jr; 14 ppg); Ky Howard (6-4, Sr; 13.5 ppg);
Rebounding (team 35.1 rpg; -1.2 rpg): Coleman (7.2 rpg); Howard (4.7 rpg); Terrence Smith (6-6, Jr; 4.3 rpg)
Assists: Howard (118)
Blocks: Coleman (25)
Steals: Lynn (46); Coleman (40)
3-pt FGM: Lynn (94)
 
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.