This Week: Notre Dame College men's basketball has played back-to-back games on the road, and four of its last five have been away from home. On Wednesday, the Falcons will take one more road trip before finally playing in front of the home fans. NDC will be in Buckhannon, W.Va. for a meeting with West Virginia Wesleyan College, on Jan. 31, with a tipoff time of 7:30 p.m. On Feb.3, the Falcons will be in Murphy Gymnasium, at 4 p.m., against Davis & Elkins College.

Records: Last week, NDC won both of its games and now holds a record of 9-8, overall, and 4-7 in Mountain East Conference play. West Virginia Wesleyan is now 2-16, with a 1-10 MEC record. If the MEC Tournament began today, the Bobcats would be on the outside looking in, currently sitting in 11th place in the conference. Davis & Elkins snapped a four-game losing streak last weekend and now have a record of 10-8 (6-5 MEC).

Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond is in year five with the Falcons and has a coaching record of 58-64 (43-50 MEC). Derek Sloan is in his third season as head coach at WVWC. He sat on the sideline as an assistant coach on the staff for two years, prior to taking over. Daniel Mondragon is now in his fourth season as head coach of D&E. Last season, he led the Senators to a 19-11 campaign with an upset of three-seed Charleston in the MEC Tournament.

Rankings: None of these teams are receiving votes in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II top 25 poll.

Series History: Notre Dame has had success against both of these teams in the past. NDC first met W.Va. Wesleyan in the 2013-14 season and holds a 13-7 record over the Bobcats. The Falcons have won the last six matchups, averaging 80.2 points over that span. Notre Dame won the first six matchups against Davis & Elkins, after the Senators joined the MEC prior the 2019-20 season. However, D&E has won the last two matchups, including a 102-79 victory over Notre Dame on Dec. 6.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame is riding its first win streak of January, after winning back-to-back games last week. The Falcons trailed Wheeling by eight (38-30) at halftime, last Wednesday, before putting up 50 points in the final 20 minutes to win by a score of 80-71. Five Falcons scored in double-digits, including a season-high 16 from Joshua Dames, who went 7-of-10 from the field. Devin Haid also knocked down five shots, off the bench, and scored 15 points. Both players had seven rebounds. NDC was also behind by two (41-39) against Salem at the half. The Falcons outscored the Tigers by 11 in the second half to win, 86-77. Robbie Cass (16) and Jamarr Talbert Jr. (15) combined for 31 points off the bench. Dames added in an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double.
 
In the conference rankings, NDC is third in blocked shots per game (4.71) and fourth in steals per game (8.12). Offensively, the Falcons are in the middle of the pack in points per game, with an average of 82.6, team field goal percentage, at 45-percent, three-point percentage, at 34.7-percentage, three-pointers made per game, at 8.9 and assists per game, with 15.2. They rank between fourth and eighth in all of those those categories. The Falcons do bring down 12.8 offensive rebounds per game, which is fourth-highest in the league.
 
Devin Haid leads the Falcons with 13.4 points per game and is second on the team with 5.5 rebounds per contest. Andre Harris is tied for sixth in the MEC with an average of 6.4 boards per game. RJ Ogom leads the conference with a free throw percentage of 91.1-percent, while Devin Haid is fourth in the conference, at 86.9-percent. Haid is also seventh in blocked shots (1.1) and eighth in steals (1.5).
 
NDC is 12th in the country in blocks per game and RJ Ogom ranks 13th in Division II in free throw percentage.

Noting the Bobcats: Last week, West Virginia Wesleyan secured its first win since November, and first conference victory of the 2023-24 campaign, by defeating Frostburg State, 88-71. Alex Mirhosseini led the team with 21 points, as four players reached double-digit scoring. Deiker Padrino added 14 points, five rebounds and five assists. The WVWC Bobcats were held to 58 points, last weekend, in a 79-58 loss to Davis & Elkins, with only two players (Joshua Johnson and Deiker Padrino) scoring in double-digits.
 
W.Va. Wesleyan is at, or near, the bottom of the conference in points per game (75.4) and points allowed per game (92). And they have struggled on the boards, getting outrebounded by an average of 8.6 per game. However, from long range, the Bobcats are fifth in the MEC with a three-point percentage of 35.4-percent. They also shoot free throws at 73.6-percent, which ranks fifth in the conference.
 
West Virginia Wesleyan has two players in the top 10 in scoring. Dieker Padrino is fifth in the MEC in points per game, with 15.9, and Alex Mirhosseini ranks 10th in scoring with 13.9 per game. Padrino leads the conference, and is 16th in the country, with a 44.8-percent three-point percentage, while ranking third in three-point field goals made per game, at 2.6. Mirhosseini is eighth in the MEC in assists per game (3.4) and Padrino is ninth in steals per game (1.4).
 
Noting the Senators: Davis & Elkins started the season very well, picking up right where left off last season. Through Dec. 14, the Senators had accumulated a record of 8-3, after beating Slippery Rock. But, since the calendar flipped to January, it has been a different story. D&E played Slippery Rock, again, on Jan. 8 and lost by two points. That began a string of five losses in seven games. Last week, the bad luck continued, losing to Fairmont State at the buzzer, 73-72. In that game, the Senators had seven players score at least seven points. Sam Rolle IV added nine points, 10 assists and five rebounds. D&E got back on track with a road win against W.Va. Wesleyan, 79-58. The Senators shot 58-percent from the floor in the second half to pull away. Rolle finished with 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Davis & Elkins outrebounded WVWC, 44-21.
 
Davis & Elkins' offensive numbers do not jump off the page, but they are a strong defensive team. They are scoring just 80.6 points per game, but are holding opponents to 74.5 points per game, which is third in the MEC, while leading the conference in opponent field goal percentage (39.4-percent). Behind the three-point line, opponents are shooting just 31.2-percent against D&E. On the boards, D&E is fourth in rebounds per game (40.4) and rank second in defensive rebounds per contest (28.8). They have outrebounded opponents this season by an average of 4.1.
 
Sam Rolle scores 17.6 points per game, which is third highest in the MEC and he ranks sixth by shooting 47.9-percent. He is one of the most dangerous in the MEC with the ball as he leads the conference in assists per game (5.6) and is fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1). Clarens Pierre is fifth in the conference with 6.6 rebounds per contest and ranks second with two blocks per game.
 
Across NCAA Division II, D&E ranks sixth in field goal percentage defense, 11th in defensive rebounds per game, 17th in rebounds per game and 19th in fastbreak points (16.3). Individually, Rolle is 13th in the nation in assists per game and 19th in total assists (100). Pierre is 14th in D2 in blocks per game and 15th in total blocks (36).