Game 9	NJIT (2-6) at UCF (5-2)
Date | Time	Saturday, December 7, 2019 | 12pm
Location | Arena	Orlando, FL | Addition Financial Arena
Live Video	ESPN3 (free)
Live Stats	In-game statistics
All-time series	First meeting
Game Notes	NJIT Notes (PDF) |UCF Notes

NEWARK, NJ-- The NJIT men's basketball team concludes its season-long, four-game road trip on Saturday when it travels to Florida to take on Central Florida in Orlando.

LAST TIME OUT
An early second half run turned a tie game into a double-digit lead as host Army West Point pulled away to defeat the NJIT men's basketball team 75-65 on Wednesday at Christl Arena.

The first half was back-and-forth with neither the lead changing hands 12 times and neither team leading by more than four points, but Army used a 17-3 run over 3:24 early in the second half to pull away from the Highlanders.

The aforementioned run put the Black Knights ahead by a game high 15 points just over five minutes into the second half. 

NJIT answered the run with one of its own, and was able to get within five on two occasions just past the midway point of the half.

Cooks Off to Hot Start
Through eight games, Zach Cooks is averaging 23.3 ppg which ranks tops in the ASUN Conference and ninth nationally. The junior captain led the Highlanders in scoring Army for the seventh time in eight games this season, tallying 23 points. Earlier this season, Cooks scored 30+ points in back-to-back games.

SportsCenter Top 10 for Number 11
Senior captain Shyquan Gibbs' heroic, last-second basket to beat Cornell was featured as the #5 play on Wednesday evening's SportsCenter Top 10. Reilly Walsh inbounded the ball to Gibbs with 3.6 seconds to play and Gibbs took it towards the basket and finished an incredible shot between two Cornell defenders to put the Highlanders ahead with just :0.5 seconds to play. 

The Flying Dutchman
Sophomore Kjell de Graaf started for the first time this season, and third time in his career last Tuesday at Rutgers. The Netherlands native made the most of it, setting new career-highs in points (13), rebounds (five) and minutes (38). De Graaf followed it up with an 11-point performance off the bench Wednesday at Army West Point. 

Brushing Up on the Knights
UCF is 5-2 overall this season after winning two of three games last weekend at the Wooden Legacy Tournament. The Knights fell to Penn in the quarterfinals, before getting back on track with victories over Pepperdine and Charleston in the consolation bracket.

UCF's only other loss this season came at home against Miami in its second game of the season.

The Knights' roster features 11 newcomers as only three players returned from last year's NCAA Tournament squad.

Three UCF players average double figure scoring numbers, with Collin Smith (15.4) leading the way. The Knights have scored 70 or more points in five of seven contests this season, but have yet to break the 80-point plateau.

All-Time Series
Saturday's meeting is the first all-time between the Highlanders and Knights.

Last three meetings:
n/a

NJIT vs. the AAC
NJIT is 1-2 all-time against the American Athletic Conference, with its lone win coming in 2015-16 at USF in Tampa.

The Highlanders overcame a three-point halftime deficit to feat the Bulls 60-57 as Damon Lynn led the way with 27 points.

Current NJIT Head Coach Brian Kennedy was an assistant coach on that team, while current graduate student Reilly Walsh was a freshman, but did not see any court time. 

Up Next
NJIT will return home for the just the third time this season and first time in three weeks when it hosts UMass-Lowell on Wednesday. Tip-off is slated for 7pm in the WEC.