ELON, N.C. – Elon closes a three-game road swing and its regular season road schedule on Monday night, Feb. 24, when the Phoenix takes on Furman at 7 p.m. at Timmons Arena. Pre-game coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on WPCM 95.1 FM/920 AM.
ELON VS. FURMAN: Monday night marks the 15th all-time meeting between Elon and Furman. Elon leads the series 10-4 and has won three straight against the Paladins. Elon is 3-2 all-time inside Timmons Arena. Elon head coach Matt Matheny is 4-2 against the Paladins. The last time the two schools met at Timmons Arena, Elon claimed a 64-60 win despite playing most of the game without Lucas Troutman. Troutman suffered a lower leg injury in the game’s first minute and missed Elon’s next four games.
ELITE COMPANY: Lucas Troutman moved into the top-10 in school history in career points on Feb. 22 at Georgia Southern after scoring 20 points to pass Clarence “Diffy” Ross for 10th all time. Troutman needs nine points to pass Chris Kiger for ninth in school history.
TRACKING THE THREES: Jack Isenbarger tied Chris Kiger for the most career threes in Elon history on Feb. 22 at Georgia Southern (259). Isenbarger is the Southern Conference’s active leader in career triples. Sebastian Koch ranks third all-time in career threes with 238.
LOOKING BACK: Elon won its seventh straight game overall and fourth straight road contest following a 66-61 decision at Georgia Southern on Feb. 22. Lucas Troutman led all players with 20 points, as Elon held off the Eagles’ late surge. GSU made it a one-point game with less than five minutes to play, but the Phoenix kept the opposition at arm’s length down the stretch.
GOING STREAKING: Elon’s current seven-game winning streak is the longest since the Phoenix reeled off seven in a row last year. The longest winning streak during Elon’s Division I era is eight games by the 2005-06 team that won the SoCon North Division title. The longest winning streak in school history is 14 games by Horace Hendrickson’s 1939-40 squad that finished 18-3.
APPROACHING A MILESTONE: With 75 three-pointers this season, Sebastian Koch is eight triples shy of breaking the single-season school record set by teammate Jack Isenbarger (2012-13) and Matt Nowlin (2003-04). Koch’s 75 threes are tied for fourth all-time with Chris Chalko (2005-06). Not far behind, Tanner Samson’s 71 threes are the sixth most in a single season in school history.
LOOKING AHEAD: Following Monday’s game at Furman, Elon closes the regular season with two home games. Elon hosts Wofford on Feb. 27 before welcoming Davidson to Alumni Gym for Senior Night of March 1.
THE CORE FOUR: Elon joined North Dakota State as the only school in the nation with four 1,000-point scorers on its current team on Thursday, Feb. 6, when Ryley Beaumont reached the career milestone. Beaumont (1,052 points) joined teammates Lucas Troutman (1,571 points), Jack Isenbarger (1,415 points) and Sebastian Koch (1,104) in the 1,000-point club.
STAY CLASSY: This year’s senior class of Ryley Beaumont, Egheosa Edomwonyi, Jack Isenbarger, Sebastian Koch and Lucas Troutman has totaled 67 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 26 dunks this season. When Troutman dunks, Elon is 13-7. When Troutman does not dunk, Elon is 3-4. Troutman has registered a total of five multi-dunk games, including a season-high three at Chattanooga on Jan. 23. Troutman has dunked 13 times in his last 11 games.
EYEING 20 WINS: Should Elon reach the 20-win plateau this season, it would mark the school’s 16th season with 20 or more wins in 105 years of basketball. A 20-win season would be only the fifth time in school history a team has finished back-to-back years with 20 or more wins. Matt Matheny would join Doc Mathis, Bill Miller and Bob Burton as the only coach to lead a team to back-to-back 20-win seasons. Bill Miller led Elon to six straight 20-win seasons from 1968-74.
ELON IN SOCON PLAY: The Phoenix is in its 11th season as a member of the Southern Conference. Elon is 92-96 (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 44-41 record in SoCon play.
FROM LONG RANGE: Elon currently leads the Southern Conference in three-point field goal percentage at 38 percent and threes made with 236. Sebastian Koch (75) and Tanner Samson (71) rank first and fourth 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 four blocks at Georgia Southern on Feb. 22, Lucas Troutman extended his program-best career mark to 206 blocks. Troutman set Elon’s all-time blocks record last season and ranks sixth all-time in Southern Conference history in blocks and needs 10 to pass The Citadel’s Kirill Misyuchenkoleague (1995-98) for fifth in league history. Troutman is the conference’s active leader in career blocks.
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 Monday’s game with an overall record of 76-79. Matheny was a finalist for CollegeInsider.com’s Hugh Durham Award last season, which honors the nation’s top mid-major coach.