The winter holidays bring an extended break for all of the area\u2019s Division III men\u2019s basketball programs.<\/p>\n
That makes it an ideal time to take stock of where each team stands before the meat of conference play begins.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at how each team has performed through the season\u2019s first six weeks and what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n
Moravian (5-3 overall, 2-2 Landmark Conference): The Greyhounds rolled past King\u2019s in their final pre-Christmas game to end a three-game losing streak. They have three nonleague games remaining, including two in the Steel Club Classic they host Dec. 29-30, before jumping into full-time Landmark Conference play Jan. 7 against Catholic.<\/p>\n
Moravian continues to lean on its starting five, including Nativity BVM graduate Marquis Ratcliff and Central Catholic graduate Chad Kratzer. The Greyhounds\u2019 starters are combining for 86.1 percent of their 89.8 points per game, with Ratcliff (24.9 ppg), Porter Kelly (17.4) and Kratzer (16.1) all among the conference\u2019s top 10 scorers entering Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Defense will determine whether Moravian competes for a spot in the six-team Landmark Conference tournament. The Greyhounds are allowing opponents to shoot 47.6 percent from the field, which ranks last in the 10-team league.<\/p>\n
Muhlenberg (5-4 overall, 0-0 Centennial Conference): The Mules will carry a winning record into the WestConn Holiday Classic on Dec. 29 thanks to their defense.<\/p>\n
Muhlenberg ranks second in the Centennial Conference in opponent field-goal percentage, limiting foes to 38.0% shooting. It\u2019s also held teams to 26.6% shooting from 3-point range, which is also No. 2 in the conference.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Jack Woodard (10.4 points per game, 5.4 rebounds per game) has emerged as one of Muhlenberg\u2019s most reliable players after only playing in six games as a freshman. He has scored at least 15 points in three of his last four games.<\/p>\n
The Mules need more efficiency from their offense overall as they chase one of the six spots in the Centennial Conference tournament. They\u2019re shooting only 39.8% from the field.<\/p>\n
Muhlenberg plays its final nonleague game Jan. 3 at Wilkes, then jumps into Centennial Conference play Jan. 10 at Haverford.<\/p>\n
DeSales (4-5 overall, 0-0 MAC Freedom Conference): The Bulldogs dipped back under .500 after losing Monday\u2019s home game against Cairn University. They\u2019re off until hosting the Al Senavitis Memorial Tournament on Dec. 28-29.<\/p>\n
Sophomore guard Jayden Thomas, a Parkland graduate, has shone through nine games. He leads DeSales and the MAC Freedom Conference in scoring (22.4 ppg) while shooting 52% from the field and averaging 9.4 free-throw attempts per game. He also tops the Bulldogs in rebounding (6.2 rpg) and assists (3.1 apg).<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs seek greater efficiency from the rest of their roster. They\u2019re shooting 43.3% from the field overall and only 26.9% from 3-point range, which ranks last in the eight-team MAC Freedom Conference.<\/p>\n
DeSales heads into conference play Jan. 7 when it hosts FDU-Florham. Five of the MAC Freedom Conference\u2019s eight teams have records ranging from one game over .500 to one game under .500, so the competition for a spot in the four-team conference tournament could be tight. Only Misericordia (7-1 overall) is more than a game above .500 in nonleague play.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Tip-ins: Wilkes senior forward Lucas Lesko (Northampton) scored a season-high 22 points Sunday at Arcadia. He missed three games in November before returning Dec. 3 at Susquehanna. \u2026 Centenary junior forward Vatijah Davis (Pocono Mountain West) went into Tuesday\u2019s game against King\u2019s averaging 23.8 points per game. She has scored 1,124 points in 60 career games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The winter holidays bring an extended break for all of the area\u2019s Division III men\u2019s basketball programs. That…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,2300,726,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-62901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}