ELON, N.C. – Elon closes the regular season at home on Saturday night, March 1, when the Phoenix welcomes in the Davidson Wildcats to Alumni Gym for Senior Night. The game marks the final home contest for seniors Ryley Beaumont, Egheosa Edomwonyi, Jack Isenbarger, Sebastian Koch and Lucas Troutman. Pre-game coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on WPCM 95.1 FM/920 AM.
ELON VS. DAVIDSON: Saturday night marks the 51st all-time meeting between Elon and Davidson. The ‘Cats lead the series 37-13, but Elon won the first meeting between the two schools earlier this season on Jan. 18 at Davidson. The Phoenix topped the Wildcats, 87-85, in overtime for its first ever win at Belk Arena. The win also snapped Davidson’s 23-game home winning streak against Southern Conference foes. It marked Elon’s first win over the ‘Cats since Jan. 20, 2011. Matt Matheny is 3-5 against his alma mater as Elon’s head coach. Elon is 3-6 at home against Davidson during its Division I era. The two schools first met on Jan. 18, 1917, at Davidson, where Elon won, 25-17.
COMMON THREADS: There are several common ties between Elon and Davidson. Elon head coach Matt Matheny graduated from Davidson in 1992 after competing for the Wildcats in both football and basketball. Matheny was an assistant men’s basketball coach at Davidson from 1993-2003 before serving as the Cats’ associate head coach from 2003-09. Elon associate head coach Tim Sweeney was a member of the Davidson coaching staff from 2006-08. In four career games against Davidson as a player at Elon, assistant coach Monty Sanders averaged 6.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. He scored 17 against the Wildcats on March 2, 2009, his second highest point total during his career at Elon. Phoenix director of basketball operations Chris Long averaged 10.9 points per game in nine career games against Davidson, which included a 27-point performance on Feb. 24, 2011.
LOOKING AHEAD: Following Saturday night’s game against the Wildcats, Elon heads to Asheville, N.C., for the 2014 Southern Conference Tournament. Currently in a three-way tie for second with Wofford and Chattanooga, the Phoenix would currently be the No. 4 seed if the tournament started today.
LOOKING BACK: Wofford’s Karl Cochran proved to be the difference maker on Thursday night in Alumni Gym, as the junior guard helped the Terriers snap Elon’s eight-game winning streak in a 63-59 decision. Cochran nailed five threes in a three-minute stretch late in the game to down the Phoenix in Alumni Gym for only the third time this season. Elon’s only other home losses this season have been to #15/16 UMass and Metro State, currently ranked No. 1 in the Division II polls. Elon’s home loss to Wofford on Feb. 27 marked the team’s first home loss to a SoCon foe in exactly a year when the Phoenix fell to Davidson, 69-63, on Feb. 27, 2012.
HOME COOKING: Over the last three years, Elon has a 33-10 record inside the friendly confines of Alumni Gym. Elon has sold out Alumni Gym 12 times under head coach Matt Matheny, with its most recent sellout coming on Feb. 15 vs. Samford. Elon is 9-3 when Alumni Gym is sold out. Elon is 11-3 at home this year and has won 18-of-22 inside Alumni Gym. Against league foes, Elon is 19-6 over the last three years.
TROUTMAN HONORED: Lucas Troutman was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week on Feb. 25. In three wins against UNCG, Georgia Southern and Furman, Troutman averaged 18.7 points and 7.3 boards, shooting 56 percent from the field. The Belton, S.C., native also recorded seven total blocks during the three game stretch.
ELITE COMPANY: Lucas Troutman now ranks among the top-10 in Elon history in career scoring with 1,607 career points. Troutman ranks ninth all-time in school history in career points and needs 23 points to pass Brendon Rowell (1998-2002) for eighth. If Troutman passes Rowell this season, he will be Elon’s all-time scoring leader during the school’s Division I era.
TRACKING THE THREES: Jack Isenbarger became Elon’s all-time leader in career threes on Feb. 24 at Furman, passing Chris Kiger’s 16-year mark of 259. Isenbarger now sits at 262 career triples and is the Southern Conference’s active leader in career threes made. Sebastian Koch ranks third all-time in school history with 240 career threes.
APPROACHING A MILESTONE: Both Sebastian Koch and Tanner Samson are closing in on Elon’s single-season threes made record of 82 set by both Jack Isenbarger (2012-13 season) and Matt Nowlin (2003-04 season). Koch currently has 77 threes this season, while Samson has 75.
THE CORE FOUR: Elon, North Dakota State and Georgia State are the only schools in the nation with four 1,000-point scorers on its current team. Ryley Beaumont reached the career milestone on Feb. 6 and currently has 1,058 points. Beaumont joined teammates Lucas Troutman (1,607 points), Jack Isenbarger (1,426 points) and Sebastian Koch (1,118) 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 68 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.
STREAK ENDED: Elon’s eight-game winning streak this season tied the 2005-06 squad for the longest during the school’s Division I era. The longest winning streak in school history is 14 games by Horace Hendrickson’s 1939-40 squad that finished 18-3.
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 5-5. 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 13 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 93-97 (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 45-42 record in SoCon play.
FROM LONG RANGE: Elon currently ranks second the Southern Conference in three-point field goal percentage at 37.9 percent and first threes made with 246. Sebastian Koch (77) and Tanner Samson (75) rank third 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 against Wofford on Feb. 27, Lucas Troutman extended his program-best career mark to 211 blocks. Troutman set Elon’s all-time blocks record last season and ranks sixth all-time in Southern Conference history in blocks and needs five 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 Saturday’s game with an overall record of 77-80. Matheny was a finalist for CollegeInsider.com’s Hugh Durham Award last season, which honors the nation’s top mid-major coach.