Thursday, January 12, 2012

MACON, Ga. - Ten Atlantic Sun Conference men's basketball games are slated for play over the week including one scheduled to be shown on CSS/ESPN3, while eight others can be seen on ASun.TV. Kennesaw State at Mercer on Friday, Jan. 13th will be shown on CSS and can also be viewed on ESPN3.

• Kennesaw State’s duo of Markeith Cummings and Spencer Dixon are the best 1-2 punch in the A-Sun, when it comes to point production. Their combined 29.9 PPG is the most in the A-Sun ahead of USC Upstate’s Torrey Craig/Ty Greene (28.2), ETSU’s Adam Sollazzo/Marcus Dubose (27.4), Stetson’s Adam Pegg/Chris Perez (26.6) and Belmont’s Kerron Johnson/Ian Clark (26.0). Cummings and Dixon are also first and second amongst active players in career points with 1399 and 1137, respectively.
• Since the 2007-08 season, four A-Sun teams own overall winning records; Belmont (105-45), ETSU (94-58), Jacksonville (78-66) and Lipscomb (74-65). Five teams hold winning records in conference play during that same span with the Bruins leading the way with 65 wins. Mercer joins the above four in the A-Sun winning record category at 42-40 over the last five seasons.
• Only one team owns an undefeated mark at home this season as ETSU stands at 6-0 inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletics Center. Four teams have only one home loss; North Florida (7-1), Belmont (6-1), Mercer (6-1), USC Upstate (5-1). The Bruins and Spartans both fell at home last week to snap their home-winning streaks. The Buccaneers haven’t lost at home in the regular season since a 10-point loss to Belmont on Feb. 17th and are 20-2 in their past 22 home contests.
• In the Battle of the Boulevard last Friday, two A-Sun student-athletes passed the 1,000-point plateau. Belmont’s Mick Hedgepeth scored four points to land right on the four-digit mark, while Lipscomb’s Jordan Burgason netted 16 points to push his career total to 1,006. Five active A-Sun student-athletes have reach the career mark.
  
  

  A-Sun Active Career Points Leaders
  Rank	Player (Team)	Points	Class	All-Time Rank
  1.	Markeith Cummings (Kennesaw State)	1,399	Jr.	41st
  2.	Spencer Dixon (Kennesaw State)	1,137	Sr.	96th
  3.	Ian Clark (Belmont)	1,092	Jr.	108th
  4.	Jordan Burgason (Lipscomb)	1,006	Sr.	136th
  5.	Mick Hedgepeth (Belmont)	1,000	Sr.	139th
  6.	Isiah Brown (ETSU)	955	Sr.	---
  7.	Jerron Granberry (North Florida)	870	Jr.	---
  8.	Adam Sollazzo (ETSU)	806	Sr.	---

• Under first-year head coach; Casey Alexander, Stetson currently sits tied for second place with Mercer in the conference standings at 4-2. The last time the Hatters finished in the top-three of the league standings was the 2007-08 season (11-5; T-3rd). Including that season, Stetson has finished in the top-three only one other time in the past 16 seasons (2000-01; 11-7 - T-3rd).
• With his 29-point performance at ETSU and 28 vs. Kennesaw State, USC Upstate’s Torrey Craig took over the league scoring lead at 17.9 PPG just ahead of Kennesaw State’s Markeith Cummings (16.1). Craig has eight 20-point games and ranks 51st in the nation for scoring. He also earned his first career A-Sun Player of the Week honor on Tuesday.
• Belmont fell two spots in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll this week to No. 19 following their loss to Lipscomb at home. The Bruins have been in the top-20 of every week this season.
• FGCU’s Christophe Varidel continues to lead the league in both free-throw shooting (.897) and three-point percentage (.472). The last A-Sun student-athlete to achieve that feat was Samford’s Joey Davenport in the 1994-95 season.
• Mercer’s defense has led the conference nearly all season long. The Bears are best in scoring defense (64.7), defensive field-goal percentage (.396), three-point defense (.317) and blocked shots (4.8). However, in five of its seven losses this season the bear’s opponents have shot over .445 from the floor. In eight of its 12 wins, Mercer has held its opponents below .390 from the field.