NEWARK, NJ -- The NJIT Highlanders men's basketball team (2-2) looks for its second-straight win with a matinee against the Drexel Dragons (2-3) on Saturday afternoon at the brand new Wellness and Events Center (WEC).
 
The Highlanders are off to a 2-1 start at home in their first year as tenants of the WEC.
 
NJIT is coming off a 116-63 win over Division III Kean University on Wednesday afternoon, while Drexel dropped a double-overtime heartbreaker, 90-88, to Drake in the third place game of the Paradise Jam on Sunday.
 
With a win on Saturday, the Highlanders will move above .500 for the first time since Dec. 3, 2016 (5-4).
 
The game can be seen live on ESPN3 (all remaining NJIT home 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, is on play-by-play with expert analysis from Rob Kennedy.

 
All-Time Series
 
This marks the first all-time meeting between NJIT and Drexel. In fact, the Highlanders have played just three current members of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in Hofstra, James Madison and Towson.
 
Saturday marks the first meeting with a CAA foe since a 75-64 loss to Hofstra on Dec. 30, 2013.
 

Inside the Dragon's Lair
 
The Dragons are off to a 2-3 start in 2017-18 including a 1-2 stint at the Paradise Jam in which head coach Zach Spiker's squad picked up an opening round win over Houston before falling to Mercer and Drake.
 
In the double overtime loss to Drake, the Bulldogs' De'Antae Murray hit a jumper with 0:15 left to give Drake the 90-88 victory.
 
Junior guard Tramaine Isabell paced Drexel with a game-high 32 points on 11-20 shooting and was joined in double figures by sophomore guard Kurk Lee (21 points), junior guard Troy Harper (12 points) and freshman forward Jarvis Doles (10 points).
 
Doles was named the CAA Rookie of the Week on Monday after averaging 9.5 ppg and 5.5 rebounds per game in four contests last week.
 
The Dragons went 9-23 (3-15 CAA) a year ago and were picked to finish ninth in the CAA preseason poll despite returning four of their top six scorers.
 
Isabell has played in four of the team's five games thus far and leads the team in scoring (22.3 ppg) and rebounding (9.3 ppg). Lee (12.8 ppg), senior guard Sammy Mojica (11.2 ppg) and Harper (10.6 ppg) are the other Dragons averaging in double figures.
 
The 22.3 points per game is tied for the top mark in the CAA along with College of Charleston's Joe Chealey.
 
Spiker is in his second season as the head man at Drexel after previously spending seven years at Army where he won 102 games, tied with Hall of Famer Bob Knight for the second most in school history.
 
In 2015-16, Spiker led the Black Knights to a 19-14 campaign, which was the most wins in a season since 1977-78. Army participated in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament and fell to NJIT, 79-65 in the opening round.
 
The Drexel roster features strong NBA bloodlines as three players have fathers who played in the NBA: Lee, senior guard Miles Overton and freshman forward Tim Perry Jr.
 
Doug Overton played college basketball at La Salle and spent 11 seasons in the NBA with eight different teams, Kurk Lee ranks sixth on Towson's all-time scoring list (1,541 points) and played one season with the then New Jersey Nets and Tim Perry Sr. played his college hoops at Temple before a nine-year NBA career that included stops with the Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns.

 
NJIT Outlook
 
In the 116-63 win over Kean on Wednesday afternoon, the Highlanders used a 17-3 run in the first half to take control of the game and led by as many as 57 points in the second half.
 
The 116 points marked the most points scored in a game by NJIT since the Division-III Highlanders' 118-74 win over Conordia (NY) on Jan. 4, 1999.
 
NJIT newcomers combined to score 68 of the team's 116 points on the afternoon including a game-high 23 from freshman guard Shawndale Jones. Classmate Zach Cooks added 17 points of his own on the strength of five three-pointers.
 
All 13 Highlanders entered the scoring column and five finished in double figures: Jones, Cooks, junior guard Diandre Wilson (17 points), sophomore forward Anthony Tarke (12 points) and junior guard Donovan Greer (10 points).
 
NJIT shot a blistering 67.7% (44-65) from the floor in the offensive outburst and improved to 27-0 all-time against Non-Division I foes with an average margin of victory of 40.0 points per game. Head coach Brian Kennedy's squad also sank a whopping 14-of-24 (58.3%) from beyond the arc.
 
NJIT set a program record with 32 assists in the game, breaking the previous mark of 29 that was set in a 113-61 win over Penn State-Abington on Nov. 14, 2011.
 
On the season, the Highlanders have featured a balanced offensive attack with six players averaging more than 7.5 points per game: Tarke (10.5 ppg), Wilson (10.3 ppg), junior forward Abdul Lewis (8.8 ppg), sophomore guard Shyquan Gibbs (8.0 ppg), Cooks (7.8 ppg) and senior guard Chris Jenkins (7.5 ppg).
 
As a team, NJIT is scoring at a clip of 78.5 ppg and has hit 49.6% of their shots from the floor. On the defensive end of the floor, the Highlanders lead the ASUN in scoring defense at 71.3 ppg.


Write-up courtesy of Joe Fitzhenry