Game 11	vs. St. Francis Brooklyn (5-3; 13-18, 10-8 NEC in 2017-18)
Date | Time	Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018 | 4 p.m.
Location | Arena	Newark, NJ | Wellness & Events Center
Tickets	www.NJITtix.com | 973-596-5555
Live Video	ESPN+ | Matt Provence (PBP) and Dave Calloway (Color)
Live Stats	In-game statistics (free)
All-time series	St. Francis Brooklyn, 4-2
Game Notes	NJIT Notes | St. Francis Brooklyn Notes

 

(NEWARK, NJ) – The Highlanders complete the back-end of a two-game homestand on Saturday, when they host St. Francis Brooklyn (5-3). Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Wellness and Events Center (WEC).
 
On Tuesday, NJIT bounced back admirably after just their second loss of the season – outlasting a deep and talented Army West Point team, 77-72, in Newark. The Highlanders now sport an even 4-1 record both home and away, and their 8-2 start is their best start since opening 9-1 in 1994-95 -- when they finished 28-2 and advanced to the NCAA Division-III Elite Eight.
 
Sophomore Zach Cooks was again the guiding light. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native registered career-highs in both points (27) and rebounds (7) while adding three assists and two steals. He also shot a very efficient 8-for-12 from the floor and 4-for-7 from deep and drained three clutch baskets down the stretch.
 
Cooks has been on fire, eclipsing the 20-point plateau in five of the last six game – averaging 22.8 points per game in the span. His previous high was 25 points, set Nov. 17 against Cornell and tied Dec. 1 at UMass Lowell.
 
Senior Abdul Lewis complimented Cooks with 14 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Although all of his scoring came in the first half, the Newark native did a solid job neutralizing Army leading scorer Matt Wilson – holding the nation's 15^th most efficient shooter (.678) entering the game to 2-for-6 from the floor and four points in the first-half.
 
The defense effort, as a whole, was yet again a significant factor in the win over the Cadets. NJIT held the Black Knight to 42-percent (27-for-65) shooting and just 28-percent (7-for-25) from beyond the arc.
 
In their eight wins this season, the Highlanders have allowed just 63.0 ppg on .377 (172-for-456) shooting -- compared to 90.0 ppg on .606 (66-for-109) shooting in their two losses. NJIT continues to rank second in the ASUN in scoring defense (68.4 ppg) and field-goal-percentage defense (.421) behind Liberty (59.7 ppg; .394).
 
Cooks now leads the ASUN in scoring at 19.0 ppg – a figure that currently ranks second among NJIT's all-time single-season scoring leaders and ranks 83^rd in the nation (18^th among underclassmen). Despite his five-foot-nine stature, the Lawrenceville, Ga., native leads the team in rebounds (51). Not as surprising, the 2018 ASUN All-Freshman selection tops the ASUN in steals per game (2.8) and ranks second in the nation in total thefts (28) behind Brandon Beard (31) of Florida International.
 
Junior Shyquan Gibbs (10 points) was NJIT's only other double-digit scorer against Army. The co-captain has shown a spike in scoring in each of his three seasons in the program – going from 3.3 ppg as a freshman to 5.8 ppg as a sophomore to nearly double that this season at 11.2 ppg (good for third on the squad).
 
Senior Diandre Wilson is the Highlanders' second-leading scorer at 11.3 ppg in 2018-19.
 
Following the tilt with St. Francis Brooklyn on Saturday, NJIT will have completed the home portion of its non-conference schedule will face a four-game road trip with challenging matchups at Fordham (Dec. 11), Fairleigh Dickinson (Dec. 15), Houston (Dec. 29) and Duquesne (Dec. 31).
 
This tough stretch will lead into ASUN play with a home bout against Kennesaw State on Jan. 5.
 
As of Wednesday, NJIT has an NCAA NET Ranking of 188.
 
 
All-Time Series:
 
In a series that started in 2010-11, St. Francis Brooklyn leads by a 4-2 mark. However, NJIT has won the last two meetings after dropping the first four.
 
The Highlanders and Terries haven't met since NJIT's 92-86 overtime victory at the Pope Physical Education Center during the 2015-16 season (Dec. 10).
 
NJIT has started 2-0 against Northeastern Conference opponents this season – defeating reigning NEC regular-season champion Wagner, 71-60, on Nov. 20, and NEC tournament champion LIU Brooklyn, 77-70, on Nov. 24. Both wins came on the road.
 
All-time, NJIT is 17-12 all-time against the NEC with four-consecutive wins.
 
 
Terrier Bites:
 
St. Francis Brooklyn is off to a solid start with a 5-3 record and a wide variety of victories. Yes, two are against Division-III teams (Medgar Evers, St. Joseph's Brooklyn). However, the Terriers earned impressive road wins at Lafayette, Niagara and Presbyterian.
 
In addition, they hung tough at Boston College with a 74-69 loss on Nov. 11 – a game they lead with 4:07 left to play.
 
As of Wednesday, SFB has an NCAA NET Ranking of 181.
 
SFB is coming off a season in which it posted a record of 13-18 overall and 10-8 in the NEC – good for a share of fourth place. The Terriers returned four of their top five scorers and two returning starters in senior point guard Glenn Sanabria (12.2 ppg) and sophomore guard Jalen Jordan (11.1 ppg). These two combined for 130 three-pointers in 2017-18 while both connected on more than 40-percent of their attempts.
 
The former also led the NEC last season in assist/turnover ratio while the latter was an NEC All-Conference selection. Sanabria became the 32^nd Terrier to reach the career 1,000-point plateau in the win at Niagra on Nov. 24.
 
This year, Jordan is leading the team at 16.3 ppg – which ranks eighth in the NEC. Sophomore Courtney Hawkins, a five-foot-eight guard from Spring Valley, N.Y., is the team's second-leading scorer at 13.8 ppg.
 
Sanabria rounds out SFB's list of double-digit scorers at 10.1 ppg, and his average of 3.1 assists per game is good for a share of eighth place in league rankings.
 
Junior Deniz Celen, a transfer from Harcum College (PA) and native of Turkey, leads the Terriers at 5.5 rebounds per game. His classmate Rosel Hurley is a close second at 5.4 rpg in his first season in Brooklyn after transferring from New Mexico Military Institute.
 
Head Coach Glenn Braica is in his ninth season with the Terriers (120-139) and holds the third-largest win total in program history. In 2014-15, he guided the team to a school-record-tying 23 victories, its first NEC Regular Season Championship since 2003-04 and a berth in the NIT -- the program's first national postseason appearance since 1963. The Brooklyn native was named a finalist for the prestigious Skip Prosser "Man of the Year" Award in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
 
Prior to landing the head position, Braica had spent 15 seasons as an assistant coach at SFB until his departure after the 2003-04 season and six years as an assistant at St. John's University.
 
Braica attended St. Agnes High School and Bishop Ford High School in Brooklyn and later graduated from Queens College in 1989. He began his coaching career at New York City Tech as an assistant in 1988.