This week: Notre Dame College men's basketball will battle two non-conference opponents before dipping back into Mountain East Conference play for the rest of the season. On December 21, NDC takes on Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. with a start time of 2 p.m. After the holiday break, the Falcons come home to take on Salem University on January 5, at 2 p.m.

Records: Notre Dame holds a 2-8 record with a 1-5 mark in MEC play. Mercy is 2-9 with a 1-2 record in the East Coast Conference. Salem has an overall record of 5-6.

Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond is in his first season as head coach at Notre Dame. Michael Maczko enters his third season at the helm of Mercy, and currently holds a record of 20-46. Robert Ford is also in his first season as head coach of Salem. He was an assistant coach on the team's staff in 2017-18 and then was promoted to associate head coach prior to last season.

Rankings: None of these teams are ranked in the NABC poll.

Series History: The Falcons are 2-2 all-time against Salem, but have not played them since the 2012-13 season. This is the first time NDC has matched up with Mercy.
 
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame picked up their first MEC win of the season last week, defeating Davis & Elkins College, 87-77, on Thursday. Notre Dame outscored D&E, 29-11, between the final five minutes of regulation and the end of overtime. On Saturday, the Falcons got off to a fast start, scoring 50 first half points, but ultimately lost to West Virginia Wesleyan. Both games went to overtime, marking the first time that NDC went to overtime in back-to-back contests since November 10-11, 2017. Over the two games, Levi Frankland averaged 19 points per game, while shooting 58-percent from the floor and 53-percent from long range. He also grabbed 5.5 rebounds per game. Drew Scarberry scored 22.5 points per game last week, on 52-percent shooting from the floor, and hauled in five rebounds per contest. Scarberry was also impressively clutch in those two games, posting a 64-percent field goal percentage while scoring a total of 24 points in the second half of those two games. On the year, Levi Frankland and Deanthony Owens lead the team in scoring, going for 18 per contest. Frankland is shooting 51-percent, including 45-percent from deep. Owens, who missed the first six games of the season due to injury, has made a major impact by shooting 57-percent from the floor and 46-percent from beyond the three-point arc. Larenz Thurman is scoring 13.3 points per game and leading the team with four assists, on average.

Noting the Mavericks: Mercy began the season 0-5 and during that losing streak, the Mavericks were falling by an average margin of 25.2 points while averaging 98.2 points allowed. Since that time, they have begun to play better, while facing a tough schedule. Mercy had to battle conference foes St. Thomas Aquinas, who was receiving votes in the NABC poll, and No. 8 Daemen College. MC earned their first win, over Georgian Court University, on November 23. They also beat Roberts Wesleyan College, last Sunday, outscoring the Redhawks 5-0 in the final 30-seconds to win by a score of 82-74. In the win over RWC, Garrett Kirkland scored 14 of Mercy's 35 first half points off the bench. His season-high coming into the game was 10. Bryan Griffin leads the team, scoring 19.2 points per game, shooting 52-percent, grabbing 13.1 rebounds per game and recording 1.9 blocks per game. He has missed the last two games but against Nyack College, on December 10, Griffin totaled 17 points, 26 rebounds and three blocks. Griffin ranks first in NCAA Division II in defensive rebounds per game (9.56), second in rebounds per game and fifth in total rebounds (118).

Noting the Tigers: Salem has seen an impressive turnaround in their men's basketball program over three years. They won a combined eight games from 2016-17 to 2017-18. Last season, the Tigers won 17 games. This year, Salem beat West Virginia Wesleyan to begin the campaign, but then lost three straight, including a 50-point loss to No. 16 West Liberty. After going on a three-game winning streak from late November until early December, the Tigers then dropped three consecutive games before beating Glenville State on December 19. The majority of SU's problems have come away from home, as they hold a 2-5 road record. And it doesn't get any easier as Salem is currently on an arduous seven-game road trip, which began on December 4 and will end on January 5. Salem's matchup with NDC will mark the Tigers' fifth game against an MEC opponent, as they have W.Va. Wesleyan, West Liberty, Glenville State and Urbana on the schedule before Notre Dame. Jordan Forbes leads the squad with 22.6 points per game and nobody else is averaging more than 13.5 points per game. Forbes is also shooting 54-percent, grabbing 8.1 rebounds per game and dishing out 3.5 assists. He's 23rd in the country with 94 field goals made. Salem's defense has stolen the ball 116 times this season, which ranks ninth in the country. Six players are already in double-digit steals and three players with at least 16. The Tigers are also 28th in the country with 326 three pointers attempted.