NEWARK, NJ-- The NJIT men's basketball team wraps up the 2020-21 regular season this weekend when it hosts Binghamton on Saturday and Sunday at the Wellness and Events Center in Newark.
NO SPECTATORS AT THE WEC
Due to COVID protocol policy, the NJIT Department of Athletics is prohibiting spectators at our Indoor & Outdoor Athletic Events.
Last Time Out
The NJIT men's basketball team suffered a 75-61 setback to host Hartford in America East Conference action on Sunday at the Chase Center on the University of Hartford campus.
A day after rallying from a double-digit deficit to defeat Hartford (11-8, 8-6 America East), NJIT (7-9, 6-8 America East) fell into too big of a hole on Sunday, trailing by as many as 22, and split the sixth of seven America East series this season.
Get to Know the Bearcats
Binghamton was picked to finish ninth in the America East preseason poll and currently sits in that position with a 2-10 record, but both of its wins came against teams in the top half of the league in UMBC and UNH.
Brenton Mills is the squad's leading scorer at 14.6 ppg, while Tyler Bertram is also averaging double-figures at 10.2 ppg. Thomas Bruce (6.8 rpg) and George Tinsley (6.7 rpg) lead the Bearcats on the boards.
All-Time Series
This weekend's games mark the third and fourth all-time meetings all-time between NJIT and Binghamton.
The squads split a home-and-home series over the last two years. Saturday's game will be the first as conference opponents.
Zach Cooks scored a career-high 35 points in last seasons game, which saw the Bearcats defeat the Highlanders in the final seconds.
Last two meetings:
11/20/19: Binghamton 77, NJIT 75 -- Newark, NJ
11/20/18: NJIT 74, Binghamton 57 -- Vestal, NY
GEORGIA ON YOUR MIND:
NJIT's two seniors both hail from the state of Georgia and have combined to start 153 games over their prolific careers.
Zach Cooks (19.7 ppg) and
San Antonio Brinson (11.0 ppg) led NJIT in scoring during the 2019-20 season. The duo has combined to score 37+ points nine times in their careers, with the Highlanders winning six of those contests. The most points they've combined for in a game was 57 (35 for Cooks; 22 for Brinson) on November 22, 2019 in a loss to Binghamton. Brinson currently holds the program's single game scoring record after a 37-point performance at North Florida last season, while Cooks' 35-point game against the Bearcats ranks second all-time.
STUDENT-Athletes:
Despite the issues they've faced due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the NJIT men's basketball team posted a 3.42 GPA during the fall semester. Nine out of 13 Highlanders earned GPAs of at least 3.33, as
Zach Cooks,
Souleymane Diakite, and
Dylan O'Hearn each paced the team with perfect 4.0 GPAs.
A New Home for NJIT
The 2020-21 season will feature NJIT's first season as a member of the America East Conference. The Highlanders, who became the 10th full member of the America East effective July 1, 2020, will play a full basketball double round‐robin schedule of 18 conference games against the other nine schools. The schedule format consists of weekend series (Saturday and Sunday) where a team hosts the same opponent on back‐to‐back days for two games.
NJIT departs the ASUN Conference after five seasons as a member (first season 2015-16), which marked the first time that the Highlanders had been a full member of an automatic qualifying NCAA Division I multisport conference.
SPLITSVILLE:
The Highlanders have split six of their seven America East series thus fall, with the only exception being a two-game series sweep by Albany. NJIT is 5-2 in game one, and 1-6 in game two.
Next Up:
The Highlanders will play in the Hercules Tire America East Championship for the first time. The tournament is set to begin next weekend.
