The NJIT Highlanders (6-5) will take a trip to the Pavillion on Friday, December 28th to take on the Villanova Wildcats (8-4). NJIT is lead by Senior Guards Ryan Wood and Chris Flores. Wood is averaging 13.7 PPG, while also adding 5.1 rebounds per game. Flores is averaging 17.4 PPG while also averaging 3 assists and 4 rebounds a game. NJIT has played several Big East teams in this early season. They have lost to Providence, Seton Hall, and St. Johns.

Villanova (8-4) is currently riding a 4 game winning streak with wins over Penn, St Joes, Delaware, and Monmouth, beating those teams by an average of 13.5 points. Villanova is lead by Forwards Jayvaughn Pinkston, and James Bell. Pinkston is averaging 12.4 points a game while also chipping in around 5 rebounds. James Bell is averaging 11.5 points per game while shooting very well behind the arc at 45.3 percent.

With Bigs Mouph Yarou (6' 10"), Maurice Sutton (6' 11"), and Daniel Ochefu (6' 11"), the Cats should be able to dominate the glass over a Highlanders team who's tallest player (with significant playing time), Terrence Smith, is a forward listed at 6' 6".

I expect the first half to be relatively close, but the Cats will pull away in the second half and extend their winning streak to five games. This is Villanova's last non conference game before starting the Big East season vs St. Johns on Wednesday January 2nd.

By: Ryan Boggio

Twitter: @rboggio23

Friday, December 28th

Time: 7:00 p.m. ET

Place: Pavilion, Villanova, PA