NJIT GAME NOTES (PDF)


JACKSONVILLE, FL – The NJIT Highlanders (13-14, 6-6 ASUN) play the penultimate game of the 2017-18 regular season on Saturday night when they battle the North Florida Ospreys (12-17, 6-6 ASUN). Opening tip from UNF Arena is set for 7 p.m.
 
NJIT is coming off a 71-69 victory at Jacksonville on Thursday, while North Florida outraced USC Upstate 109-100.
 
The Highlanders and Ospreys are locked in a four-way tie for third in the ASUN along with three regular season games remaining. Jacksonville and Kennesaw State also sit at 6-6 in league play.
 
NJIT has won three straight on the road after dropping eight in a row away from home to begin the season. With a win on Saturday, the Highlanders will have won four straight on the road for the first time in the school's Division-I era.
 
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.

 
All-Time Series
 
North Florida leads the all-time series by a 3-2 count, but the Highlanders have won two of the past three meetings including a 91-59 victory over the Ospreys on Jan. 20 at the Wellness & Events Center (WEC) in Newark.
 
Head coach Brian Kennedy's squad shot a blistering 68.6% from the floor in the first half in that contest.
 
UNF scored the first five points of the game before junior guard Reilly Walsh got NJIT on the board and kickstarted a 34-9 run over the next eight plus minutes.
 
The 32-point margin of victory was the Highlanders' largest ever against an ASUN opponent.
 
The Highlanders led by double digits for the final 33 plus minutes of the game.
 
Junior guard Diandre Wilson paced NJIT offensively with a game-high 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting including a perfect 5-of-5 effort from three, while the trio of freshman guard Zach Cooks, junior forward Abdul Lewis and sophomore forward Anthony Tarke added 10 points apiece.
 
Sophomore forward Noah Horchler contributed 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting to lead the Ospreys, while freshman forward Trip Day added 10 of his own.
 
In the last meeting in Jacksonville on Feb. 9, 2017, North Florida closed the first half on a 35-8 run en route to a 91-69 victory.
 
The two teams split a pair of meetings a year ago.

 
F-U-N WITH U-N-F
 
The Ospreys shot 58.5% from the field and 44.4% from beyond the arc in the 109-100 victory over USC Upstate on Saturday.
 
North Florida led 47-42 at halftime before putting up 62 points in the second half to pull away.
 
Sophomore forward Wajid Aminu had 29 points on 12-of-15 shooting to lead the way offensively for the Ospreys and was one of six players in double figures: Horchler (16 points, 11 rebounds), sophomore guard Ivan Gandia-Rosa (15 points, 18 assists), redshirt senior guard Osborn Blount (13 points), sophomore guard/forward Garrett Sams (12 points) and Day (10 points).
 
The 18 assists from Gandia-Rosa are a school record.
 
Head coach Matthew Driscoll's squad shoots a league-best 37.4% from beyond the arc and ranks second in scoring at 81.0 ppg.
 
Gandia-Rosa leads six Ospreys in double figures at 13.8 ppg and he is joined by Sams (11.8 ppg), redshirt sophomore guard J.T. Escobar (11.6 ppg), Horchler (11.6 ppg), Day (11.5 ppg) and Aminu (10.5 ppg).
 
Horchler leads the ASUN in rebounding at 8.8 rpg and ranks fourth in field goal percentage (54.6%).
 
North Florida features two of the top five rebounders in the ASUN with Horchler and Aminu, who ranks fifth at 6.9 rpg.
 
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
 
Cooks hit a pair of free throws with 3.8 seconds left to lift the Highlanders to the 71-69 win at Jacksonville on Thursday.
 
The Dolphins had tied the game on a basket from Devin Harris with 9.5 seconds left.
 
Jacksonville's Jace Hogan misfired on a potential game-winning three at the buzzer.
 
Tarke had a team-high 18 points to pace NJIT, while Wilson chipped in with 17 points and Lewis added 12.
 
The 17 points for Wilson tied his third-highest scoring output of the season and his first double-digit scoring effort since he scored 11 on Jan. 20 vs. Jacksonville.
 
Tarke has now led NJIT in scoring on 14 occasions this season and is one of three players in the ASUN that ranks in the top 20 in the league in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
 
Tarke leads the Highlanders and ranks seventh in the ASUN in scoring at 15.6 ppg, while Lewis checks in at 12.2 ppg and Wilson sits at 10.6 ppg.
 
Lewis is the team's top rebounder at 8.5 rpg, a total that sits second in the ASUN.
 
In conference play, NJIT is shooting a league-best 40.1% from deep including a 52.4% clip from Cooks.