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Utica, NY (February 10, 2014) – The Utica College men's basketball team returns to the hardwood after a six day break on Tuesday night when the Pioneers take on host Houghton College at 6 p.m.

Meet The Pioneers: Utica looks to snap a seven game slide on Tuesday night … The Pioneers are currently 6-14 overall and 1-10 in Empire 8 Conference action … Utica's last win was an 87-73 victory over visiting Ithaca College on January 11, 2014 … The Pioneers have struggled as of late, falling in 11 of their last 12 outings … Utica is averaging 77.2 points per game this season which ranks fourth in the Empire 8 Conference.

Nevins is Having a Banner Year: Junior point guard Aaron Nevins (Buffalo, NY/Canisius) is tied for fourth in the conference with a career-best average of 17.2 points per game … He also ranks fourth in the Empire 8 with an average of 3.8 assists per game … He also ranks ninth in the E8 shooting 46.2% from the floor this season. 

Jeffers' Rebounding: Forward Chris Jeffers (Albany, NY/Bishop Maginn) ranks third in the Empire 8 with an average of 8.8 rebounds per game … He also ranks second on the team with 12.1 points per game … He has six double-doubles this season.

Career Records: Nevins recently moved into eighth place on the College's all-time assist list… Nevins has 265 career assists and needs just five more to move into sole possession of seventh place on the list… Chris Jeffers (Albany, NY/Bishop Maginn) currently ranks third on the College's career rebounding list with 606 over the course of the last three seasons… He needs 42 more to overtake Mark Carmichael (1987-90) for second all-time.

1,000 Point Club: Nevins needs 165 points to become the 14th player in program-history to score 1,000 or more points in a career … He currently has 835 points in three seasons … The last player to join the 1,000 point club was former UC point guard James Patterson '11, who finished his career with 1,227 points (fifth all-time).

Last Time These Two Teams Met: (2/8/2013) The Pioneers used a 17-2 run in a span of 3:45 midway through the second half to rally for an 86-81 victory over visiting Houghton College on senior night at the Clark Athletic Center on February 8, 2013 … Senior Matt Baldwin (Gloversville, NY/Gloversville) connected on 4-of-9 3-pointers and scored a season-high 26 points in his final home contest as a Pioneer, while Connor Maisch added 23 points, eight rebounds and four steals to pace the home team to its third win in four tries … Chris Jeffers (Albany, NY/Bishop Maginn) scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season and he is now averaging 12.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per contest for the Pioneers … Aaron Nevins (Buffalo, NY/Canisius)  netted 11 points, while Alex Meyer (Salt Point, NY/Our Lady of Lourdes) and Marion Lewis (Bronx, NY/Lehman) combined for 10 points for UC.

All-Time Against Houghton: The Pioneers are currently 2-0 in two previous meetings against the Highlanders … UC beat Houghton in both of their meetings last year by the scores of 86-81 and 85-66.

Meet Houghton: The Highlanders have lost 13 consecutive games and they currently have a record of 3-18 overall … Their last win was an 88-83 victory over D'Youville College back on December 7, 2013 … The Highlanders are led by 12.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game from Tyler McQuaid … Brandon Camacho is also having a nice year for Houghton, averaging 11.6 points and he also has a team-best 63 assists … Houghton is currently averaging 68.2 points per game and the Highlanders have a 2-7 record on their home court.