Friday, January 20, 2012

MACON, Ga. - Eleven men's basketball contests are slated for play over the week including nine Atlantic Sun Conference contests. FGCU at Stetson on Friday will be shown on CSS and ESPN3 as the A-Sun Game of the Week, while North Florida at Mercer on Saturday will be streamed on ESPN3.

• At 29.2 PPG, Kennesaw State’s duo of Markeith Cummings and Spencer Dixon are the best 1-2 scoring punch in the A-Sun. They rank ahead of USC Upstate’s Torrey Craig/Ty Greene (28.3), Stetson’s Adam Pegg/Chris Perez (28.2), ETSU’s Adam Sollazzo/Marcus Dubose (27.5) and Belmont’s Kerron Johnson/Ian Clark (26.1). Cummings and Dixon are also first and second amongst active players in career points with 1423 and 1160, respectively.
• FGCU’s freshman guard Bernard Thompson leads all A-Sun freshmen in PPG (12.0), RPG (5.1) and SPG (1.9). He ranks in the top-10 for all conference student-athletes in points (10th) and steals (2nd). Last year, Torrey Craig - the 2011 A-Sun Freshman of the Year, led all freshmen in scoring (14.4) and rebounds (7.2).
• North Florida’s three-point shooting tandem of Jerron Granberry and Parker Smith combined to make 4.9 three-pointers each contest, which is the best combo in the A-Sun. Granberry ranks third in the conference in 3-point percentage at .431, while Smith isn’t far behind at .412, good for eighth.
• The last time FGCU traveled to Stetson, the Eagles and Hatters combined for the highest scoring conference game in A-Sun history with a 111-103 FGCU triple overtime victory. This season, Stetson’s ranks fifth in the A-Sun in scoring at 70.2, while FGCU is seventh at 69.4. However, in Nashville this past weekend both teams went into overtime vs. Lipscomb with Stetson registering 103 points and the Eagles defeating the Bison in the extra period.
• In six of its seven home victories this season, Mercer has defeated its opponents by double digits. Five times the Bears have won by more than 15 points, which includes a 30-point victory in the last home contest vs Kennesaw State on Jan. 13th
• Only one team owns an undefeated mark at home this season as ETSU stands at 6-0 inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletics Center. Three teams have only one home loss; Belmont (8-1), Mercer (6-1), USC Upstate (5-1). 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.
• Since the 2007-08 season, four A-Sun teams own overall winning records; Belmont (107-45), ETSU (96-58), Jacksonville (79-67) and Lipscomb (75-66). Five teams hold winning records in conference play during that same span with the Bruins leading the way with 67 wins. Mercer joins the above four in the A-Sun winning record category at 43-40 over the last five seasons.
• ETSU’s Isiah Brown has a chance to become the 140th A-Sun student-athlete to reach 1,000 career points and fifth this season. Brown, a senior, owns 983 points and is averaging 10.9 PPG.

  A-Sun Active Career Points Leaders
  Rank	Player (Team)	Points	Class	All-Time Rank
  1.	Markeith Cummings (Kennesaw State)	1,423	Jr.	38th
  2.	Spencer Dixon (Kennesaw State)	1,160	Sr.	T-89th
  3.	Ian Clark (Belmont)	1,114	Jr.	103rd
  4.	Jordan Burgason (Lipscomb)	1,048	Sr.	119th
  5.	Mick Hedgepeth (Belmont)	1,030	Sr.	123rd
  6.	Isiah Brown (ETSU)	983	Sr.	---
  7.	Jerron Granberry (North Florida)	887	Jr.	---
  8.	Adam Sollazzo (ETSU)	845	Sr.	---

• Belmont moved up one spot in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll this week following a 3-0 week. The Bruins have been in the top-20 of every week this season.
• With his 17-rebound performance at Charlotte, Kennesaw State’s Aaron Anderson earned his second 17-rebound game of the season. He leads the league with 8.8 RPG and is best in double-doubles (5) and 10-rebound games (8). The last A-Sun student-athlete with two 17-rebound efforts in the same season was Jacksonville’s Ben Smith in 2010 with 18 boards vs. North Florida and 17 at Mercer.