District of Columbia Looks to Even Season Series at Roberts Wesleyan Saturday

2012-13 University of the District of Columbia Men's Basketball Game Notes

District of Columbia (2-14, 1-7 ECC) at Roberts Wesleyan (5-12, 2-7 ECC)

Saturday, January 26^th – Voller Athletic Center (Rochester, NY)

Opening Tip-Off

The Firebirds men's basketball team will make the near 400-mile trek up north to a frigid, Rochester, NY for a hotly-contested East Coast Conference battle against conference newcomer, Roberts Wesleyan. Tip-off from the Voller Athletic Center is at 4 p.m. Follow Live Stats and Live Video.

Updating the Firebirds

District of Columbia has lost its last four games, including a bitter, 70-68 defeat at home on Wednesday night to Queens. During their last three losses, three-point shooting is way down (10-of-50, 20-percent), and the Firebirds have had an uncharacteristically bad assist-to-turnover ratio (26/53). The play of junior transfer guard Michael Terry (Criminal Justice – Philadelphia, PA/Boston U) has been one of few bright spots for District of Columbia over this losing skid. He has averaged 18.5 points per-game while shooting 54-percent from the field. He is coming off of a double-double performance where he registered season-highs of 25 points and 11 rebounds against Queens.

Scouting Roberts Wesleyan

The Redhawks have lost seven straight games since they came into the nation's capital and handed the Firebirds a 77-67 loss on December 15^th, 2012. In their last outing on Wednesday night, they fell behind to Bridgeport, 67-50 with 7:44 remaining before closing out the game on a furious, 22-7 run. Senior forward Devin Grimes dominated on the boards with a game-high 21 rebounds to go with a team-high 18 points, but Roberts Wesleyan fell short, 74-70. Grimes is a double-double machine, averaging team-bests 15.5 points and 12.8 rebounds (No. 1 in the ECC) per-game and racking up 44 assists and 33 steals this season.

The Matchup

Just a five-point game at halftime the last time these two met at UDC Gym, the Redhawks used two separate 8-0 runs in the second half to bolder their lead to double-digits, and they hung on for a 10-point margin of victory despite a frantic late rally by the Firebirds. RWC improved to 5-5 overall and 2-0 in league play with that win but have since dropped seven straight ECC games.

The Redhawks have only been out-rebounded six times this season, but they are 1-5 when that happens. When they played the Firebirds in December, they only won the rebounding battle by a slim, 43-41 margin as sophomore forward Florent Pontens (Business Management – Tarbes, France/Cheshire Academy) and senior guard Keith Brooks (Journalism – Queens, NY/Monsignor McClancy HS) both had career-high rebounding days with 11 and eight boards, respectively.

Also, the Firebirds will look to be aggressive on defense as Roberts Wesleyan has averaged 20.0 turnovers per-game over its last seven contests. District of Columbia, meanwhile, still averages the fewest turnovers per-game this season with 13.5.