ELON, N.C. – The Elon University men’s basketball team plays its final road game of the 2013 calendar year on Sunday, Dec. 22, when the Phoenix heads to Boca Raton, Fla., to face the Florida Atlantic Owls. Tip is scheduled for 2 p.m. at The Burrow. Taylor Durham (play-by-play) and Jason Vonick (analyst) will call the action live on WPCM 95.1 FM/920 AM.
ELON VS. FAU: Sunday marks the second ever meeting between Elon and FAU. The Phoenix won last year’s meeting inside Alumni Gym as part of the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational Regional Games, topping FAU in overtime in the championship, 62-59, on Nov. 18, 2012. Jack Isenbarger found his shooting touch at the right time for Elon in the win, scoring nine points in the extra session to lead the maroon and gold to victory. Isenbarger ended the game with 16 points, while Lucas Troutman scored 14 points to go along with eight boards and four blocks en route to earning EA SPORTS Maui Invitational Regional Games Most Outstanding Player honors.
LOOKING BACK: Elon made history on Thursday, Dec. 19, against Central Penn, scoring a program-record 126 points in a win over the Knights. The Phoenix knocked down 51-of-87 field goals (59 percent) in the victory, putting six players in double figures. Sebastian Koch scored a team-high 21 points in the win, while Ryley Beaumont recorded his first double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 boards.
LOOKING AHEAD: Following Sunday’s game at FAU, Elon returns to action on Dec. 31 when it hosts the Duke Blue Devils at the Greensboro Coliseum. The game is scheduled for 1 p.m. and will be broadcasted live on ESPNU. Duke currently ranks eighth nationally in the Associated Press top-25 poll.
MAKING HISTORY: Elon’s 126-78 win over Central Penn on Dec. 19 marked the most points scored in a game in school history, besting the previous mark of 124 set in 1955 vs. DuPont. Rookie Luke Eddy’s free throw with less than a minute late put the Phoenix over the hump and set the new benchmark. Elon has now scored over 100 points in a game twice this season, which not been done since the 1988-89 season. The team reached the century mark for the 59th time in school history as well. It was the first time since Dec. 5, 2005, against Guilford that Elon grabbed more than 60 boards in a game. The Phoenix grabbed 67 against the Quakers in 2005.
FROM LONG RANGE: Elon currently leads the Southern Conference in three-point field goal percentage at 42.7 percent and threes made with 117. Tanner Samson (42) and Sebastian Koch (39) rank first and second in the league in threes made. Samson ranks third in the SoCon in three-point field goal percentage, while Austin Hamilton ranks fourth and Koch ranks sixth.
KOCH HONORED: Sebastian Koch scored a career-high 27 points at 21st-ranked Colorado on Dec. 13, and was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week on Dec. 17. Koch’s nine triples are the most in a single game during Elon’s Division I era. His 27 points mark the most by an Elon player since Jack Isenbarger’s 34-point performance against The Citadel on Feb. 4, 2012.
SAMSON HONORED: Tanner Samson was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week on Dec. 10 after scoring a career-high 23 points in an 87-70 win over VMI on Dec. 3. Samson connected on 5-of-8 from three-point land in the win and was 8-of-10 from the free-throw line. He added a career-best nine rebounds, three assists and three steals in 36 minutes against the Keydets.
MILESTONE WATCH: Both Sebastian Koch (920 points) and Ryley Beaumont (888 points) are in line to be the next Elon players to reach 1,000 career points. Elon currently has two players with over 1,000 career points in Lucas Troutman (1,330) and Jack Isenbarger (1,230). Troutman ranks 15th all-time and needs 52 points to pass Thomas Moore (1972-75) for 14th all-time. Isenbarger ranks 20th all-time in scoring and needs five points to pass former teammate Chris Long for 19th all-time.
BLOCK PARTY: With three blocked shots against Central Penn on Dec. 19, Lucas Troutman extended his program-best career mark to 176 blocks. Troutman set Elon’s all-time blocks record last season and is nine blocks shy of passing VMI’s Eric Mann (1997-01) for 10th all-time in Southern Conference history. Troutman is the league’s active leader in career blocks.
TRACKING THE THREES: Jack Isenbarger enters Sunday’s game with 224 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.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Lucas Troutman has scored in double figures in eight of Elon’s last nine games this season and in 37 of the team’s last 43 games. Troutman has scored 20 or more points in eight of those contests.
HOME COOKING: Over the last three years, Elon has a 27-8 record inside the friendly confines of Alumni Gym. Elon has sold out Alumni Gym nine times under head coach Matt Matheny, with its last sellout coming on Nov. 8, 2013, on opening night when the Phoenix topped Washington & Lee. Elon is 5-1 at home for the third straight season and has won 12-of-14 inside Alumni Gym.
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 Tuesday’s game with an overall record of 65-74. Matheny was a finalist for CollegeInsider.com’s Hugh Durham Award last season, which honors the nation’s top mid-major coach.