This week: Notre Dame College men's basketball will play their third consecutive home game, when they take on Davis & Elkins College on Dec. 8. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The Falcons head south to West Virginia Wesleyan College for a 4 p.m. start on Dec. 11.
Records: Notre Dame has a 5-2 record, with a 3-1 Mountain East Conference mark. D&E is currently 2-5 (1-3 MEC), while W.Va. Wesleyan has a 1-7 record (0-4 MEC).
Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond is in his third season as the head coach of the Falcons. He has an overall record of 22-31 and has gone 18-24 in conference play. Daniel Mondragon is also in his third season at the helm of the Davis & Elkins program. He has a record of 14-36 with an 11-29 mark in MEC play. Derek Sloan enters his first season as the head coach at West Virginia Wesleyan.
Rankings: None of these teams are ranked in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 Poll.
Series History: Notre Dame first met Davis & Elkins in the 2010-11 season. The Falcons hold a 4-0 record against the Senators. NDC is 8-8 all-time against Wesleyan since the 2012-13.
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame had three games on the schedule this week and they will be looking to bounce back from Monday's loss to Lourdes University. Over the last three games,
Jaedon Willis is averaging 26.3 points per game. That includes a 38-point outburst against Glenville State, last Wednesday. He has also totaled four steals in back-to-back games entering Wednesday's game against D&E.
Willis is the Falcons' leading scorer this season, averaging 23.7 points per game. He also leads the team with 3.4 assists per contest. The Falcons have three players who have taken at least 17 three pointers and are shooting over 40-percent from long range (
John Godinez (10-for-17),
Tyland Crawford (11-for-24),
Jaedon Willis (26-for-59)). NDC also has two players who have taken more than 25 shots and are shooting at least 63-percent from the field (
Michael Kirkland (18-for-28),
Michael Sampson (29-for-46)).
Michael Sampson averages 10.4 points, leads the team with 8.3 rebounds per contest and 2.6 steals per game.
The team ranks eighth in NCAA Division II with a three-point percentage of 43.3 percent.
Jaedon Willis is 13th in the nation in scoring average and is 15th in three pointers made per game 3.71.
Noting the Senators: Davis & Elkins is looking to snap a two-game losing streak. They fell to West Liberty last weekend by 31 points (100-69). Breland Walton (27) and Sam Rolle IV (26) scored 53 of the Senators' 69 points in the loss.
This season, Rolle is leading the team by averaging 20.7 points, 5.9 assists and 2.7 steals per game, while Walton is averaging a double-double with 18 points and 11.7 rebounds. Both players (Rolle - 51-percent, Walton - 52-percent) are shooting over 50-percent from the field. As a team, the Senators shoot 29-percent from three.
Noting the WVWC Bobcats: West Virginia Wesleyan's only win this season came against Seton Hill on Nov. 15. They are looking to end a five-game losing skid. Last Saturday, they scored just 26 points in the first half and lost to Wheeling, 83-60. Jayden Hibbitt was their leading scorer with 25 points and had seven rebounds.
Hibbitt is leading the team with 20 points per game, but is only shooting 22-percent from three. As a team, WVWC shoots 41-percent from the field and 32-percent from long range. Braeden McGrew has started just four of the eight games that he has played, but he is third on the team in minutes played (31.1) and the second-highest scorer (11.1).
The assistant coach for West Virginia Wesleyan is Anton Vrebac, who was a punter with the NDC football team from 2014-17.
