By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The Elon’s men’s basketball team appears ready for the next phase of the season after a strong showing in non-conference games.
That stretch was capped by Saturday night’s 73-59 victory against visiting Marshall at Schar Center.
That puts the Phoenix with a 9-4 record, marking the team’s most regular-season, non-conference triumphs since the 2015-16 season and the program’s best non-league win percentage in its Division I era.
Now it’s on to Coastal Athletic Association play with Thursday night’s game at North Carolina A&T and Saturday night’s home encounter with Hampton.
“For this team, having the nine guys back that we do, we certainly had some hopes that we could put together a competitive non-conference run,” Elon coach Billy Taylor said earlier this season. “We’ve been really locked in in terms of game plans.”
In the Marshall game, sophomore guard Nick Dorn pumped in a career-high 29 points, aided by six 3-point baskets. Sam Sherry provided 17 points and 13 rebounds, TJ Simpkins had 13 points and five assists and Matthew Van Komen hauled in 14 rebounds.
About an hour before tip-off, the team announced that Taylor would miss the game because of illness. Assistant coach Ryan Saunders filled in against Marshall (7-7).
N.C. A&T (4-10, 0-1) will be in its second conference game. The Aggies completed their non-league slate by snapping an eight-game losing streak with an 85-72 home victory against longtime rival North Carolina Central on Saturday afternoon in Greensboro.
Elon has won two games in a row, topping visiting UNC Greensboro 73-69 on December 21.
Women’s basketball
Elon also opens its CAA schedule at N.C. A&T, playing there Friday night.
The Phoenix took a 5-5 record into Tuesday afternoon’s non-league home game against Division II Lees-McRae.
N.C. A&T, which was voted as the CAA preseason favorite in a poll of league coaches, held a 3-7 record prior to Tuesday’s home game against Division II Mount Olive.
