Thursday, December 01, 2011

MACON, Ga. - Fifteen men's basketball games are slated for play over the next six days including the CSS/ESPN3 A-Sun Men's Basketball Game of the Week between Jacksonville and North Florida. Nine of the fifteen contests will be shown on ASun.TV.

A-Sun Conference play also begins this week with seven contests scheduled for Thursday and Saturday.

• Kennesaw State’s Markeith Cummings sits atop the A-Sun scoring list at 18.3 PPG. Last season, Cummings also led the A-Sun in scoring at 18.3. Only Centenary’s Willie Jackson has led the A-Sun in scoring in back-to-back seasons, when he accomplished the feat in three-straight years from 1981-84.
• Cummings’ teammate Spencer Dixon is only 26 points away from becoming the 136th A-Sun student-athlete to reach 1,000 career points. Belmont’s Ian Clark is also nearing the mark at 941 career points.
• Belmont appeared at No. 6 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll this week; dropping out of the top-five for the first time this season. ETSU continued to receive votes in the poll.
• ETSU’s senior Tommy Hubbard is one double-double away cracking the A-Sun career record books for the category. Currently his 14 career double-doubles ranks tied for 27th, which is the most amongst active players.
• At 5-2, USC Upstate leads the A-Sun in victories and winning percentage. The Spartans have claimed wins in their past three contests, which is tied for the longest current winning streak in the A-Sun. Their five wins also matches the 2010-11 season win total.
• Lipscomb’s Zavion Williams scored 28 points in a win against SIU-Edwardsville on Nov. 22nd. It still stands as the most points this season and also is the most by a Bison freshman since 2002. It is the most from a freshman in the A-Sun since FGCU’s Christophe Varidel totaled 29 in a triple-overtime contest against Stetson on Jan. 25th, 2011.
• Despite the 2-5 record, FGCU has outscored its opponents this season, 67.7 to 67.4. In their five loses, the Eagles have lost by a combined 21 points and in their two victories have won by 23 points. All five of FGCU’s loses have come on the road.
• Belmont owns a 16-game home winning streak entering Thursday’s contest as the Bruins have also won 14-straight A-Sun contests at the Curb Event Center. Belmont’s last loss at home came against Lipscomb on Jan. 26th, 2010. Kennesaw State and Mercer try to break that streak this weekend. The Owls are 3-12 in A-Sun road contests since Belmont’s last home loss, while the Bears are 5-10.
• Last season, North Florida only won four home contests - all of which came in league play. This season, the Ospreys are 4-0 at Arena and host crosstown rival, Jacksonville, on Saturday. The Dolphins went 9-9 on the road last season including a 63-62 overtime victory against the Ospreys.
• Through six contests, Stetson leads the A-Sun in three team statistical categories; free-throw percentage (.701), rebounds per game (39.3) and defensive rebounds per game (27.5) Last season, the Hatters ranked 10th (.620), 8th (33.1) and 11th (21.29) in those respective categories.