This Week: On Dec. 19, Notre Dame College men's basketball will take the court for a road matchup against D'Youville University. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.
 
Records: NDC has an overall record of 5-4, while starting the season 4-2 in Mountain East Conference play. D'Youville has a 3-8 record.
 
Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond enters his fourth season as the head coach of the Falcons. He has an overall record of 37-47 and has gone 31-37 in the MEC. Andy Stark is in his first season as head coach at D'Youville.
 
Rankings: None of these teams are ranked in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 Poll.
 
Series History: The Falcons and Saints have never played each other.
 
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame went 2-0 last week, defeating Davis & Elkins (74-63) and West Virginia Wesleyan (91-47). In both games, four Falcons reached double-digit scoring.
 
Against Davis & Elkins, Notre Dame fell behind late in the second half, but would close out the game on an 11-0 run. Daylin Lee and Andre Harris both finished with a season-high 18 points and both players connected on at least seven shots from the field. Harris also posted his first double-double of the season by grabbing 10 rebounds. NDC had 21 points off turnovers in that game. Against W.Va. Wesleyan, the Falcons scored over 90 points for the third time this season. On defense, Notre Dame held the Bobcats to 18 first half points and 47 for the game. The Bobcats shot 32-percent from the field. Jaedon Willis shot 70-percent and scored 19 points in 22 minutes, while Gbolahan Adio added 13 points and seven rebounds. The Falcons shot 55-percent from the field in the second half.
 
Notre Dame has won three of its last four games and is currently tied for third in the MEC standings.
 
Jaedon Willis now ranks third in the MEC, and 20^th in Division II, in scoring by putting up 20.9 points each night. He is tied for seventh in the MEC, with 2.3 three-pointers made per game and ranks sixth by shooting 84.6-percent at the free throw line. Willis has made 55 free throws this season, which ranks 12^th in the country. Andre Harris leads the Falcons with 5.3 rebounds per game and Willis leads the way with 2.8 assists per game.
 
The Falcons score 82.6 points per contest, which ranks in the top five in the MEC. Their defense has been one of the best in the conference so far. NDC is allowing 77.1 points per game, third best in the MEC, and they are holding opponents to a 41.6-percent field goal percentage and a 29.2-percent three-point percentage, which both rank second in the MEC. NDC ranks second in the conference with an average of 28.4 defensive rebounds and ranks fourth with 3.56 blocks per game.
 
Noting the Saints: D'Youville has played four times since Dec. 7. The Saints have gone on the road for the last four games and lost to Mercyhurst (89-54), defeated Mercy (89-82) and then lost to St. Thomas Aquinas (85-74) and Le Moyne (100-54) over the last week and a half.
 
On Dec. 11, against St. Thomas Aquinas, DYU shot 45-percent and had two players in double-digits as Willie Kondrat led the way with 19 points and Renard Fontes Jules added 18. The Saints held Spartans to 39-percent shooting in the 11-point loss. In the matchup with Le Moyne, on Dec. 13, Kondrat led D'Youville in scoring with 12. Le Moyne made 38 baskets and shot 59-percent from the field and 44-percent from three.
 
The matchup with Notre Dame will by DYU's first home game since Dec. 4. They are 1-6 in road contests this season. The Saints have a few MEC opponents on the schedule. On Nov. 15, they lost to Wheeling, 73-58, and they are scheduled to play Alderson Broaddus on Dec. 31.
 
As a team, DYU is really struggling on the offensive end. The Saints average 70.4 points per game, but rank last in the conference with a 39.9 field goal percentage and a 29.2-percent three-point shooting mark. They also grab just 32.5 rebounds per game, which is the lowest in the East Coast Conference. D'Youville does rank third in the conference with 8.9 steals per contest.
 
The Saints have two of the top six scoring leaders in the ECC. Willie Kondrat averages 17 points and Luke Theisen puts up 14.9 points per game. Kondrat also leads the team in rebounds per game, with six.