NJIT GAME NOTES (PDF)


NEWARK, NJ – The NJIT Highlanders (8-10, 1-2 ASUN) look to snap a two-game skid when they return home to host the North Florida Ospreys (8-12, 2-1 ASUN) on Thursday night at the state-of-the-art Wellness & Events Center (WEC) in Newark. Opening tip is set for 7 p.m. 
 
NJIT is coming off a hard-fought 68-54 loss at Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday, while the Ospreys held off Kennesaw State in an 85-78 win on the same day.
 
The Highlanders have won eight of their first 10 at the WEC.
 
The game can be seen live on ESPN3 (all remaining 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.
 
Mike Ventola, the voice of NJIT women's basketball, is on play-by-play with expert analysis from Rob Kennedy.
 
All-Time Series
 
North Florida leads the all-time series by a 3-1 count after the two teams split a pair of meetings a year ago.
 
In the last meeting on Feb. 9, 2017, the Highlanders came storming out of the gate and opened up an 18-8 lead before the Ospreys closed the first half on a 35-8 run in the final 12:01 to break the game open en route to a 91-69 victory.
 
Sophomore forward Anthony Tarke matched his career-high with 23 points in that contest to lead NJIT, while junior forward Abdul Lewis added 15 and Tim Coleman came through with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Dallas Moore paced the Ospreys with 28 points as all five starters scored in double figures. Sophomore guard Garrett Sams added 18 points of his own and sophomore forward Wajid Aminu and Aaron Bodager chipped in with 12 points apiece.
 
NJIT won the last meeting in Newark, 84-78 on Jan. 14, 2017 on the strength of a 15-5 run in the second half that stretched the lead to as many as 18 in the second half.
 
Damon Lynn drained six three-pointers en route to a game-high 33 points and Tarke came through with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Moore led North Florida with 30 points, while Sams tallied 18 and Romelo Banks added 10 points.
 
F-U-N WITH U-N-F
 
The Ospreys held a one point lead at halftime and scored 50 points in the second half as part of the 85-78 win over Kennesaw State on Saturday.
 
North Florida converted 32-of-37 (86.5%) from the charity stripe in the game.
 
All five starters for head coach Matthew Driscoll's squad scored in double figures: freshman forward Trip Day (18 points), Sams (16 points), sophomore forward Noah Horchler (15 points, 13 rebounds), sophomore guard Ivan Gandia-Rosa (12 points) and redshirt sophomore guard J.T. Escobar (11 points).
 
The Ospreys have won three of their last four after dropping four straight prior to that.
 
North Florida leads the league in scoring (79.9 ppg) and shoots a league-best 37.6% from beyond the arc.
 
Gandia-Rosa leads the team in scoring at 14.5 ppg, while Sams (12.2 ppg), Escobar (12.0 ppg) and Day (10.7 ppg) also average double figures for the Ospreys. Horchler checks in at 9.5 ppg and leads the team in rebounding at 7.9 rpg, which ranks second in the ASUN behind the Highlanders' Lewis.
 
Day also sits second in the ASUN in field goal percentage at 58.1%.
 
Driscoll is in his ninth season at the helm of the Ospreys and has led his club to two ASUN regular season titles in the past three years and a berth in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
 
In 2015-16, North Florida won a school-record 21 games and hosted Florida in the opening round of the NIT.
 
Driscoll is also the winningest coach in program history.
 
Prior to coming to North Florida, Driscoll spent six seasons as the top assistant at Baylor and helped lead the Bears to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 20 seasons in 2008.
 
Driscoll's son, Chase, is a senior guard for the Ospreys.
 
Aminu's brothers, Alade and Al-Farouq, played collegiately at Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, respectively. Al-Farouq currently plays for the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers while Alade plays professionally in France.
 
Sophomore guard Benedikt Haid's father, Johannes, was a two-time NAIA All-American at Hawaii Pacific and signed with the Detroit Pistons before suffering a severe knee injury.
 
Freshman guard Brian Coffey II's cousin, DeAngelo Hunter, currently plays college basketball at West Virginia whom the Highlanders squared off against earlier this season.
 
NJIT Outlook
 
The Highlanders battled for 40 minutes, but fell short in the 68-54 loss to first place Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday in Fort Myers.
 
NJIT was held to 26 points on 29.0% shooting (9-of-31) in the second half by the Eagles' ASUN-best defense.
 
Freshman guard Zach Cooks paced head coach Brian Kennedy's squad with 12 points, while classmate Shawndale Jones chipped in with 11 off the bench and Lewis added eight points.
 
Jones has scored in double digits in five straight and is averaging 12.6 ppg to go along with 5.8 rebounds per game during that stretch.
 
The Highlanders feature a balanced attack offensively as five players average at least 7.0 ppg: Tarke (14.7 ppg), junior guard Diandre Wilson (10.8 ppg), Lewis (9.8 ppg), Jones (8.1 ppg) and Cooks (7.4 ppg).
 
Lewis leads the team and ASUN in rebounding at 8.2 rpg.
 
Defensively, NJIT continues to lead the league in steals at 8.2 thefts per game and sits second in scoring defense at 73.3 ppg. The 8.2 steals per game is a total that ranks 32^nd in the nation.


Write-up courtesy of Joe Fitzhenry