GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Winners of six of its last seven games, the Fighting Sioux men's basketball team will take to the road for a two-game swing through a pair of the country's largest metropolitan areas. UND will open its Great West Conference road trip in the shadows of New York City as the Sioux face NJIT on Thursday (6:30 p.m. CT) in Newark before traveling to the Windy City to take on Chicago State on Saturday (4:30 p.m. CT).   

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Live Chat: www.FightingSioux.com (Both games)

Live Stats: www.FightingSioux.com (NJIT game only)

Overall: NJIT leads 2-1  

In Newark: NJIT leads 1-0  

Jones vs. NJIT: 1-2  

Last Meeting: NJIT won 70-57 (3/10/10)  

Overall: North Dakota leads 2-1  

In Chicago: Chicago State leads 1-0  

Jones vs. Chicago State: 1-1  

Last Meeting: CSU won 71-61 (2/25/10)  

• UND continues its three-game road swing on the east coast when the Sioux take on NJIT on Thursday in Newark, N.J. before concluding it in the Windy City on Saturday against Chicago State.

• The Sioux are riding the momentum of a three-game winning streak, which includes their first road victory of the season - an 83-73 triumph over South Dakota last Saturday. 

• The win over the defending Great West champions also secured the team's first sweep over the Coyotes since the 2003-04 season. 

• Redshirt freshman Brandon Brekke continued to play well, registering his third double-double in Great West play. He equaled his season-high with 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds (seven offensive), while connecting on 8 of his 10 field goal attempts.

• Junior Patrick Mitchell and Troy Huff each added 16 points in the victory. Huff bounced back from his lowest-scoring output of the season (two vs. Houston Baptist) to post his 12th double-figure scoring game of the campaign.

• Redshirt freshman Josh Schuler scored nine of his 13 points after the break. Schuler matched his point total from the first meeting with USD and 22 of his 26 points in the two games came after halftime.

• Freshman Jamal Webb put together another solid all-around game, scoring seve points, dishing out eight assists, grabbing five rebounds and recording a season-high four steals.

• UND made just 21-of-37 free throw attempts (56.8 percent), marking the first time the team has won when shooting less than 70 percent from the foul stripe. 

• The Sioux are shooting 71.2 percent from the foul line for the season, a tally that ranks second behind Utah Valley (77.0 percent) in the GWC.

• Freshman Aaron Anderson holds the top percentage on the team (84.8) and he has attempted 29 more (84-for-99) than his next closest team - Huff (41-for-70, 58.6 percent).

Head coach Jim Engels is in his third season guiding the Highlanders. Each season, the team has improved and NJIT is well on its way to doing that again in 2010-11.

The Highlanders are already one win away from matching last season's 10-win tally with eight GWC games and the tourney left to play. 

The team has won two straight out of GWC action, picking up thrilling victories against Farleigh Dickinson (64-62 ot, Feb. 1) and Longwood (65-64, Feb. 5).

Isaiah Wilkerson hit a layup with 1.2 seconds left to give the Highlanders the win over a Longwood team that UND beat 90-74 on Jan. 9. NJIT avenged an 88-81 road loss to the Lancers on Jan. 18.

Wilkerson and sophomore guard Chris Flores share the team lead in scoring at 13.1 ppg. Both players have scored 275 points in 21 games this season. Wilkerson, who is averaging 19.0 ppg in GWC games, is also the club's top rebounder (6.4 rpg).

The Sioux and Highlanders played a trio of intense games a season ago, with NJIT taking two of three, including dealing UND a season-ending 70-57 loss at the Great West Conference Tournament (March 10). 

Patrick Mitchell set a UND single-game record with 10 3-pointers in a 90-78 victory by the Sioux in Grand Forks (Feb. 23) before NJIT won 91-73 in Newark (Feb. 28, Wilkerson high scorer with 21) and in the opening-round of the league's postseason tournament. Flores had 21 in the tourney game to pace the Highlanders, while Wilkerson added 18. 

SCOUTING THE COUGARS (6-17, 3-4 GWC): 

The Cougars will play twice this week before the Sioux arrive in the Windy City for Saturday's Great West clash. 

Head coach Tracy Dildy is in his first season leading CSU and his first as a head coach after 20-plus seasons as an assistant at the DI level.

Dildy and the Cougars just snapped a 29-game road losing streak on Saturday when they trumped Texas-Pan American, 70-64 on Feb. 5.

Junior Carl Montgomery was the catalyst for that victory with 23 points and 15 rebounds. He has been the Cougars' best player this season, averaging 17.0 ppg and 7.9 rpg overall and 19.0 ppg and 8.0 rpg in GWC games. 

Senior guards Antonio Lofton and Jonathon Montgomery man the perimeter for Dildy. Lofton is the team's top 3-point shooter at 42.1 percent, but has taken only 18 attempts. Montgomery and Victor Scott are the primary deep threats, shooting 34.3 percent (35-for-102) and 33.6 percent (40-for-119), respectively.

The teams split their home-and-home series a season ago with each team winning on its home court. The Sioux picked up a 74-60 victory on Feb. 13 with sophomore Patrick Mitchell leading the way with 17 points. UND made 14 3-pointers in the contest with Mitchell sinking four of those.

In the game at Chicago, the Cougars won 71-61 and got a double-double from forward Kabangu Kasamba, who had 20 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Travis Bledsoe had a game-high 24 points for the Sioux, who shot just 38.7 percent from the floor. Bledsoe went 6-for-12 from beyond the arc to try to keep the Sioux close.

BIG SKY BOUND: The Fighting Sioux will join the Big Sky Conference in the summer of 2012 in time to participate as a full member during the 2012-13 academic year. The announcement was made on Nov. 1 in the lobby of the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. UND got its first taste of conference competition this season on Nov. 19 when the Fighting Sioux knocked off Sacramento State, 64-60, at home. Three UND players each scored 11 points as the club held off a late rally by the Hornets to post its first win over a Big Sky team in program history. The Sioux had lost their first four against league opponents since moving up to Division I basketball three seasons ago. The Sioux will also travel to Northern Colorado to face the Bears on Feb. 21. UNC is no stranger to the Sioux, having been a long-time rival during UND's Division II days as a member of the North Central Conference. Besides Sacramento State and Northern Colorado, the Big Sky is also comprised of Portland State, Northern Arizona, Montana, Montana State, Idaho State, Weber State and Eastern Washington. Southern Utah will also join the league along with the Sioux in 2012-13. 

SWAT MITCHELL: Mitchell broke into the UND career top 10 list in blocks earlier this season and he continues to move up the charts. Mitchell currently ranks seventh with 88 for his career after tallying three in the win over UTPA. Through 21 games this season, he leads the GWC with 30 blocks (1.4 bpg). For his career, Mitchell has blocked four shots in a game on seven different occasions, including three times this season. The latest occurence was during the 107-96 quadruple-overtime loss to UVU when he registered a career-high five blocks. He has led the Sioux in blocks in each of his first two seasons of play at UND.

THE WHOLE TRUTH: The 2010-11 true freshman class of Aaron Anderson, Troy Huff and Jamal Webb have jumped right into the mix this season and their scoring output has been stellar. Huff has reached double figures 12 times, including nine out of the last 11 games, Webb has eight double-digit scoring games and Anderson has achieved 10-plus seven times. Huff had his highest scoring output with 22 in the win over South Dakota School of Mines (Dec. 30). Anderson had his season-high of 19 in the quadruple-overtime loss to Utah Valley (Jan. 20) and Webb has a trio of 15-point outings (vs. IPFW, Nov. 23; vs. Mayville State, Dec. 14; and vs. USD, Jan. 15). Huff leads the team in scoring at 11.2 ppg and is averaging 13.4 ppg since being inserted into the starting lineup 10 games ago. Webb checks in at fourth in scoring at 9.0 ppg and Anderson is fifth at 8.4 ppg. 

FROSH BEGINNING: The trio of true freshmen on the UND squad have been joined by a pair of redshirt freshmen to give UND head coach Brian Jones five first-year players in his regular rotation this season. Entering the week, those five rookies had accounted for 931 of the team's 1,429 points, which gives the Sioux the most production (65.1 percent) by a freshmen class in Division I basketball. There are a pair of schools close behind as both Kentucky and Memphis also get more than 60 percent of their point production from freshmen.

NEW LOOK: Head coach Brian Jones has been forced to use five different starting lineups this season - mostly due to injuries - but his latest combination has produced the best results. The Fighting Sioux have won six of their last seven games and Jones has used the same starting five in all seven of those contests (Jamal Webb, Josh Schuler, Troy Huff, Patrick Mitchell and Brandon Brekke). Webb (20), Schuler (21) and Mitchell (21) have been constants in the starting lineup with Huff being inserted 10 games ago due to an injury to Spencer Goodman, while Brekke has started seven straight since Longwood (Jan. 9). The only setback was a quadruple overtime loss to Utah Valley (Jan. 20).  

SWEEPING SUCCESS: For the first time since the 2003-04 season and second time in the last 20 years, the Fighting Sioux swept its regular season home-and-home series with South Dakota. UND knocked off the Coyotes on Saturday at the DakotaDome, 83-73, after opening league play with a home win over USD (75-62) on Jan. 15. Junior Patrick Mitchell averaged 14.5 ppg and 9.5 rpg in the two victories, while Brandon Brekke added 14.0 ppg and 8.5 rpg. Brekke's classmate, Josh Schuler, scored 13 points in each contest with 22 of those 26 points coming in the second half. The most telling stat of the two contests might have been USD's poor shooting from beyond the arc. The UND defense limited the Coyotes to just a trio of 3-pointers in the two games (35 attempts). 

NOBODY LEFT: With the 83-73 victory over Houston Baptist on Jan. 29, the Fighting Sioux have now beaten each of the Great West teams at least once since joining the league for its inaugural season in 2009-10. UND owns an 9-8 record in the one-plus seasons of GWC play. 

EXCESS IS GOOD: With the 91-82 victory over UTPA on Jan. 27, the Fighting Sioux picked up their ninth win of the season to exceed the win total from the entire 2009-10 season (eight) - their first full DI schedule. UND increased its win total to 11 last Saturday by picking up its first road victory of the season at South Dakota (Feb. 5). The Sioux have eight more regular season games left to play to grow that number even larger as well as the Great West Conference Tournament slated for March 9-12 in Orem, Utah.

MAGIC NUMBER: When the Sioux have scored 70-plus points in a regulation contest this season, the team owns a perfect 9-0 record. UND has won six of its last seven and the team had a season-high 91 regulation points in the win over UTPA on Jan. 27. In their last seven contests, the Sioux are averaging 85.2 ppg.

ICE MAN: Three times this season freshman Aaron Anderson has connected on double-figure free throws in a contest. He leads the team with 84 makes (team-high 99 attempts), including a 60-for-64 effort (93.8 percent) in UND's 10 victories this season. He is 71-for-80 (88.8 percent) in the team's 11 home contests. The reserve guard also leads the team in overall percentage at 84.8. His latest double-digit free throw exploit was in the 83-73 victory over Houston Baptist (Jan. 29). Anderson led the team with 16 points, including a 7-for-8 effort from the foul line in the final two minutes of play (12-for-14 overall).