Elon Men’s Basketball Opens February Slate at App State

ELON, N.C. – The stretch run of Southern Conference play leading up to March’s league tournament begins on Saturday, Feb. 1, when the Elon University men’s basketball team takes on Appalachian State. The afternoon matinee is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Holmes Center in Boone, N.C.

ELON VS. APPALACHIAN STATE: Saturday afternoon marks the 97th all-time meeting between Elon and Appalachian State. ASU leads the series 53-43, but Elon has won three of the last four meetings. Elon has lost six straight in Boone, with its last victory coming on Jan. 13, 2007, with a 64-63 decision. Since the 2002-03 season, Elon has a 1-10 record against ASU in Boone.

LAST MEETING: Elon and ASU met earlier this season on Jan. 6 on Elon’s campus, as the Phoenix earned its first league win with a 75-66 decision. Elon put four in double figures in the win, as Ryan Winters tallied a career-best 14 points off the bench. The Phoenix shot 55 percent from the field in the victory.

LOOKING BACK: Five Phoenix players scored in double figures in a 74-60 win over Western Carolina on Thursday night, Jan. 30, at Alumni Gym. Lucas Troutman registered his eighth career double-double with 17 points and 10 boards, as Elon shot 53 percent from the field. The Phoenix held WCU’s Trey Sumler, who came into the game ranked fourth in the conference in scoring at 18.3 points per game, to six points. The Catamounts did not attempt a free throw in the game.

LOOKING AHEAD: Following Saturday’s game at ASU, Elon returns home for back-to-back games next week against UNCG (Feb. 6) and Georgia Southern (Feb. 8). Elon’s game against Georgia Southern will be broadcasted live on ESPN3.

STREAK ENDED: Elon’s streak of 21 consecutive games with the same starting lineup ended on Jan. 30 against Western Carolina, as Jack Isenbarger and Kevin Blake moved into the starting five. It marked the first start for both players since Elon’s CIT game at Canisius last season on March 20.

STAY CLASSY: This year’s senior class of Ryley Beaumont, Egheosa Edomwonyi, Jack Isenbarger, Sebastian Koch and Lucas Troutman has totaled 61 wins during its tenure at Elon, which is the most by a class during the school’s Division I era. The 1974 class, led by Clarence “Diffy” Ross, holds the all-time record for wins by a senior class with 85. The class of 1974 played with a total of eight players that have scored 1,000 or more points in their career at Elon.

TROUTMAN DUNKS: Lucas Troutman has tallied a total of 20 dunks this season. When Troutman dunks, Elon is 8-7. When Troutman does not dunk, Elon is 3-4. Troutman has registered a total of four multi-dunk games, including a season-high three at Chattanooga on Jan. 23. Troutman has seven dunks in Elon’s last six games.

MILESTONE WATCH: Sebastian Koch became the third player on Elon’s roster to reach 1,000 career points on Jan. 18 against UMass and now sits at 1,035 career points, joining Lucas Troutman (1,478) and Jack Isenbarger (1,335). Troutman ranks 11th all-time in scoring and needs 92 points to pass Clarence “Diffy” Ross for 10th all-time. Isenbarger ranks 15th all-time in school history in career points and needs 47 points to pass Thomas Moore for 14th. Elon’s next closest player to reaching 1,000 career points is Ryley Beaumont (979 points). If Beaumont reaches 1,000 points this season, Elon will be the only team in the nation with four 1,000-point scorers on its current roster.

HOME COOKING: Over the last three years, Elon has a 30-9 record inside the friendly confines of Alumni Gym. Elon has sold out Alumni Gym 10 times under head coach Matt Matheny, with its most recent sellout coming on Jan. 18 vs. No. 15/16 UMass. Elon is 8-2 at home this year and has won 15-of-18 inside Alumni Gym.

ELON IN SOCON PLAY: The Phoenix is in its 11th season as a member of the Southern Conference. Elon is 86-96 (including tournament action) against current members of the Southern Conference since the 2003-04 campaign. Elon went 13-5 against league foes during the regular season last year, winning the SoCon North Division title. Matt Matheny has a 38-41 record in SoCon play.

FROM LONG RANGE: Elon currently leads the Southern Conference in three-point field goal percentage at 40 percent and threes made with 188. Sebastian Koch (62) and Tanner Samson (60) rank first and third in the league in threes made, respectively. The long-distance duo ranks third and fourth in the league in three-point field goal percentage, respectively.

BLOCK PARTY: With two blocks against WCU on Jan. 30, Lucas Troutman extended his program-best career mark to 195 blocks. Troutman set Elon’s all-time blocks record last season and ranks eighth all-time in Southern Conference history in blocks and needs three blocks to pass Davidson’s Jake Cohen for seventh in league history. Troutman is the conference’s active leader in career blocks.

TRACKING THE THREES: Jack Isenbarger enters Saturday’s game with 245 career three-pointers made, which ranks second all-time in Elon history behind Chris Kiger’s (1994-98) career mark of 259. Isenbarger is the Southern Conference’s active leader in career triples. Sebastian Koch ranks third all-time in career threes with 226.

HEAD COACH MATT MATHENY: Matt Matheny is in his fifth season as the Elon head men’s basketball coach. The 2013 Southern Conference Coach of the Year by the media, Matheny enters Saturday’s game with an overall record of 70-79. Matheny was a finalist for CollegeInsider.com’s Hugh Durham Award last season, which honors the nation’s top mid-major coach.