This Week: For the first time since Dec. 10, Notre Dame College men's basketball will be playing another team from the Mountain East Conference. On Jan. 4, the NDC Falcons will travel to play Frostburg State University for a 7:30 p.m. start. Notre Dame will come back home to battle Fairmont State University, on Jan. 7, with a 4 p.m. tipoff.
 
Records: NDC has an overall record of 7-4, while starting the season 4-2 in Mountain East Conference play. Frostburg State enters the week at 5-7, with a 1-5 MEC record. Fairmont State is currently 8-4, while going 3-3 in the MEC.
 
Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond enters his fourth season as the head coach of the Falcons. He has an overall record of 39-47 and has gone 31-37 in the MEC. Sean Brown Sr. is now in his fifth season on the sideline in Frostburg. He currently has a coaching record of 37-73. Tim Koenig enters his fourth season at Fairmont State and has gone 69-24, with a 47-19 mark in MEC play.
 
Rankings: None of these teams are ranked in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 Poll.
 
Series History: Notre Dame has gone 4-2 against Frostburg State, since the Bobcats joined the MEC in the 2019-20 season. NDC is 6-16 all-time against Fairmont State, but Notre Dame has not lost at home against the FSU Falcons since Jan. 2018, winning four straight matchups.
 
Noting the NDC Falcons: Notre Dame had a great month of December, going 4-1. After defeating D'Youville College and Mount Aloysius College in non-conference matchups around the holidays, NDC is now on a four-game win streak. Against Mount Aloysius, Jaedon Willis led the way with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while Andre Harris scored 12 points after making four of the six shots that he took. NDC had 46 points in the paint and 30 points off turnovers. The team set season-highs with 24 assists and 13 steals.
 
The Falcons have been particularly solid on defense early this season. They currently lead the MEC by allowing just 73.4 points per game, holding opponents to a 39.6-field goal percentage and a 28.7-percent three-point percentage. They trail only Concord by bringing down 41.2 total rebounds per game, but lead the conference with 30.5 defensive boards each game, which is also 7th in the country. Over the past four games, NDC has not allowed more than 63 points to an opponent. In the MEC, Notre Dame ranks fifth with 83.6 points per game, fifth with a field goal percentage of 46.2-percent, fourth with a three-point percentage of 36.4-percent, fifth with a free throw percentage of 72.1-percent and fifth with an average of 15.2 assists per game.
 
Jaedon Willis is now third in the MEC with a scoring average of 20.2 points per game. He has scored in double-digits in all 11 games this season and has now put up at least 10 points in each of the last 21 contests, dating back to last season. Willis is third in the MEC with a free throw percentage of 86.5-percent, and is fourth after making 2.4 threes per game. Andre Harris leads NDC and is 13th in the conference with six rebounds per game.
 
Noting the FSU Bobcats: Four of Frostburg State's five wins so far this season have come against non-conference opponents. They are currently on a two-game win streak after blowing out Mansfield (102-81) and then sneaking past District of Columbia (78-76) in December.
 
The Bobcats had to comeback against the District of Columbia, after falling behind 40-34 by halftime. Jason Murphy (20), Agyei Edwards (18) and Tairell Fletcher (14) combined for 52 of FSU's 78 points. Murphy also had 11 rebounds and was named MEC Player of the Week. FSU outscored DC 44-36 in the second half and shot 63-percent (17-for-27) in the final 20 minutes. Throughout the game, the Bobcats took just five threes and knocked down one. 
 
Frostburg State scores 78.4 points per game and allow 84 points, ranking ninth and tenth in the conference, respectively. The team hauls in 37.1 rebounds per night. The Bobcats do rank in the top five of the conference in turnover margin at plus-0.17 per game.
 
Tairell Fletcher puts up 20.7 points each night, which is second-best in the conference. Jason Murphy (14.8 ppg) and Agyei Edwards (14.5) rank 14th and 15th in scoring, respectively. Murphy brings in 8.1 rebounds per game, which is third in the MEC, while Edwards hauls in 6.3 per games, ranking 12th. Murphy is also fourth in the conference as he shoots 58-percent from the field and he is tied for the league lead with 1.8 blocked shots per game. Jaylin Albury is eighth in the conference with 3.6 assists per contest.
 
Noting the FSU Falcons: After starting the season 5-0, it has been a struggle for Fairmont State. The Falcons, ranked No. 12 at the time, fell to No. 25 West Virginia State, 101-99 in overtime, on Dec. 3. That started a three-game conference losing streak, which Fairmont took into the holiday break. FSU had a tough non-conference matchup on Dec. 30, losing to No. 19 Virginia Union, 88-83, in overtime.
 
Against Virginia Union, Fairmont State led 38-31 after the first half. However, VUU outscored the Falcons 57-45 in the second half and overtime to win. The player of the game was Virginia Union's Raemaad Wright, who posted 21 points and 20 rebounds, however, Fairmont State had some impressive performances, as well. Six FSU players scored in double-digits, with Briggs Parris leading the way with 15 points off the bench. Starters Isaiah Sanders and Fonz Hale each had 14 points. On the boards, Fairmont was outrebounded 55-34.
 
Fairmont State's offense has been near the top of the conference most categories. FSU is first in the MEC with a field goal percentage of 50-percent and a free throw percentage of 77.5-percent. Fairmont State scores 93.8 points per game and they are outscoring opponents by an average of 14.7 points per game, which are both second in the conference. The Falcons also rank second with 11.8 threes made per game and hold a three-point percentage of 40.4-percent. They bring down a high number of rebounds, averaging 41.1 per game, which ranks third. They rank in the top three in the MEC in turnover margin (plus-2), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4), assists per game (20.3), steals per game (10.5) and blocked shots per game (4).
 
Isaiah Sanders leads the team and ranks fourth in the conference in points per game, with 18. He is first in the MEC in three-point percentage (.483), three pointers made per game (3.5) and second in free throw percentage at 87.2-percent. Sanders is fourth with 2.2 steals per contest. His teammate Tariq Woody leads the conference, and is third in the country, in field goal percentage at 69.3-percent and George Mangas shoots 52.1-percent, which ranks seventh in MEC. Zyon Dobbs ranks third with 4.7 assists per game and fourth with a 2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. Fonz Hale also ranks fourth in assists per game (4.6) and fifth in steals per game (1.9).