University of the District of Columbia Men’s Basketball Faces Road Test at ECC Foe Dowling
OAKDALE, NY – The University of the District of Columbia men's basketball team looks to extend its East Region best nine-game win-streak as the Firebirds visit East Coast Conference foe Dowling on Saturday, January 7 at 3:00 p.m. Play-by-play announcer Eli Pearlstein will provide live audio courtesy of Stretch Internet.
District of Columbia (11-1, 2-0 ECC) completed its non-conference schedule on Wednesday night as the Firebirds earned a season sweep of their crosstown rival Washington Adventist with an 88-81 victory at the UDC Gym. UDC has won its last nine straight games by an average margin of 9.1. Among those wins were two ECC contests, one at home against Queens (77-69) and the other on the road versus St. Thomas Aquinas (72-60).
Head coach Jeff Ruland's senior-laden squad is led by its backcourt duo of Nigel Munson (Washington, DC – DeMatha HS) and Brandon Herbert (Baltimore, MD – McDonough HS) who average 20.0 and 19.9 points per-game, respectively. Both players are among the top-50 in the nation in scoring while Munson is tied for third in the ECC and Herbert is fifth. Munson also leads the conference and ranks No. 8 in Division II for assists per-game with 6.58 per-contest.
Dishawn Bradshaw (Baltimore, MD – St. Frances Academy), another senior guard among this very talented group, is coming off a season-high 31-point performance against WAU. He quietly averages 14.5 points per-game and ranks second to Herbert in free-throw shooting percentage at 84.8-percent.
Defensively, the Firebirds feature the league's leading shot blocker in 6-foot-11 senior center Diyaaldin Kelley (Philadelphia, PA – Mariana Bracetti HS). The imposing man-in-the-middle blocked a season-high nine shots against WAU and averages 2.33 blocks per-game for the season.
Dowling (4-6, 0-1 ECC) has won two of its last three, including a 63-57 victory over non-league foe Post University in its last outing on Tuesday night. The Lions have gone 4-4 since starting the season 0-3. They have played just one ECC game this year – a 70-57 loss at home to Bridgeport.
Senior guard John Merchant leads the Lions offensively with 15.8 points per-game (10th in ECC) while 6-foot-5 junior guard Josh Malone averages 9.6 points and a team-high 7.1 rebounds (5th in ECC) per-game.