NJIT GAME NOTES (PDF)


NEWARK, NJ – The NJIT men's basketball team (0-1) will look for their first win of the season when the Lafayette Leopards (0-1) come to the new Wellness and Events Center (WEC) on Tuesday. The opening tip is slated for 7 p.m.
 
Both teams dropped close affairs in their respective season openers, as the Highlanders fell, 60-49, to Wagner, while Lafayette College lost a 67-65 heartbreaker at George Mason University. GMU's Justin Kier hit a pair of free throws with six seconds left to give the Patriots the win.
 
A year after playing 11 of their 16 non-conference games on the road, NJIT plays five of their first six games inside the friendly confines of the WEC.
 
The WEC is a three story, 220,000-square-foot building that cost $102 M; and the 3,500 seat basketball arena will compare favorably with many Division-I mid-major facilities throughout the country.
 
The game can be seen on ESPN3 (all NJIT basketball games can be seen on ESPN3).
 
A simple way to find ESPN3 is on NJIT's official athletics website, http://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.
 
Matt Provence, the voice of the Highlanders, will be on play-by-play with expert analysis from Rob Kennedy.

 
All-Time Series
 
The Highlanders are 3-7 all-time against the Leopards including an 84-83 overtime loss in Easton a year ago. The home team has won each of the last seven matchups in the series.
 
Since NJIT joined Division I in 2006-07, the two teams have done battle every year with the exception of the 2008-09 season.
 
In last season's afore-mentioned contest, Lafayette's Nick Lindner sank a pair of free throws with 2:00 left in the extra stanza to give the Leopards the lead for good at 82-81. NJIT had a good look for the win, but senior Tim Coleman missed a game-winning shot attempt on a step-back jumper from the elbow at the buzzer.
 
The Highlanders led 70-61 with 4:09 left in regulation before the Leopards embarked on a 16-7 run to force overtime.
 
Damon Lynn paced head coach Brian Kennedy's squad with 24 points and was joined in double figures by Tim Coleman (15 points) and Abdul Lewis (13 points, 12 rebounds). Anthony Tarke added eight points and nine rebounds off the bench.
 
Lindner led all scorers with a game-high 25, while Matt Klinewski added 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Leopards.
 
NJIT is 11-23 all-time against current Patriot League members and went 1-1 against PL foes a year ago, dropping the overtime contest to Lafayette before picking up a 74-68 win over Colgate.
 
Bucknell is the only member of the conference that the Highlanders have never played.

 
Spotting the Leopards
 
In the 67-65 loss to George Mason on Friday, sophomore forward Myles Cherry tied the game on a putback in the final minute before Kier's clutch free throws proved to be the difference in the game for the Patriots. Senior guard Eric Stafford missed a three with 10 seconds left that would have given Lafayette the lead.
 
Klinewski hit four treys and led all scorers with 18 points as the senior big man became the 44^th 1,000 point scorer in program history. He was joined in double figures by Stafford and sophomore forward Lukas Jarrett who each contributed 10 points apiece.
 
Lafayette was picked to finish 10^th in the Patriot League preseason poll after going 9-21 (5-13 PL) a year ago and falling to Loyola (MD) in the opening round of the Patriot League tournament.
 
The Leopards return seven of their top eight scorers from 2016-17 including Klinewski who averaged 16 points and six rebounds per night. Junior forward Paulius Zalys is back for another campaign in Easton after averaging 9.1 ppg last season.
 
Head coach Fran O'Hanlon is in his 23rd season at the helm of Lafayette and holds the record for games coached (658) in the Patriot League. Over the course of his career, he has taken the Leopards to the NCAA Tournament three times (1999, 2000, 2015) and has been named the PL Coach of the Year on three separate occasions.
 
The Philadelphia native played his college ball at Villanova and still holds the school record for assists in a single game (16). O'Hanlon was selected in the 8th round of the 1970 NBA Draft by his hometown 76ers and played one season with the Miami Floridians of the American Basketball Association before taking his playing career overseas.
 
All-time, the Leopards have gone to the NCAA Tournament five times with their most recent appearance after winning the PL Tournament in 2015, when, as a 16-seed, LC fell to 1-seed Villanova, 93-52.
 
Lafayette alum, Joe Maddon, is the manager of the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs.


NJIT Outlook
 
Saturday's 60-49 loss to Wagner was a close, low-scoring affair in which neither team led by more than six until the final minute.
 
Both teams struggled to shoot from the field as NJIT shot 31.9% (15-47) and Wagner shot at a 36.4% clip (20-55). The Highlanders' total of 49 points was their lowest since a 65-49 loss at LIU Brooklyn on Dec. 14, 2014.

The Seahawks' Tyler Plummer hit a layup with 7:08 left to kickstart a 16-6 run for the visitors over the remainder of the contest. Wagner hit 14-22 (63.6%) from the charity stripe on the night, but sank seven of their final 10 attempts to ice the victory.
 
Plummer's layup came on the heels of a Tarke bucket that had given NJIT a 43-42 advantage at the 7:28 mark.
 
In the inaugural game at the WEC, Tarke, a sophomore, led all Highlander scorers with 13 points while Lewis notched the sixth double-double of his NJIT career with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore guard Shyquan Gibbs chipped in with 9 points on 3-4 shooting, including a pair of treys and backcourt mate Reilly Walsh had two points, four rebounds and three steals along with numerous hustle plays on both ends of the court.
 
Both Lewis and Tarke were named to the ASUN'S All-Preseason team.
 
NJIT adds a talented, four-man recruiting class for 2017-18 and also welcomes a junior college transfer in guard Diandre Wilson -- who ranked 11th in the nation after scoring 22.3 ppg for Mott Community College (MI) last season.
 
Kennedy is back for his second season at the helm of the Highlanders after previously spending four years as the top assistant.


Write-up courtesy of Joe Fitzhenry