The FMCC Men's Basketball team picked up a 108-94 victory on the road over Onondaga on Saturday. With the first half of the season coming to a close, the Raiders have picked up where they left off last season. They currently sit at 7-2 overall, 6-1 in the region and 5-1 in conference play.
In the win over Onondaga, Schumel Shepherd led with 23 points and 10 assists and Kennyh Hardeman with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Donovan Rodriguez finished with 19 points and Nick Butler added 15. Matej Gasevic rounded out double figure scoring with 12 points. As a team, the Raiders shot an impressive 59.7% from the field in the win.
The Raiders are an impressive 6-1 in regional play in road games to begin the season. As a team, they are ranked #14 Nationally in DIII, in the top 5 of the coaches poll, they are in the top 5 of the region in scoring and lead the region in field goal percentage.
Kennyh Hardeman is in the top 5 in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage. He is currently averaging 19 points per game, 13.7 rebounds per game and shooting 55.4% from the field.
Schumel Shepherd leads all freshman in scoring at 19.2 point per game. He is top 5 overall in scoring in the region and is leading the region in assists at 6.1 per game.
Donovan Rodriguez is averaging 15.3 ppg and leading the region at an impressive 44.8% from three.
"I'm very proud of how my guys have come out and started the season especially with only one home game so far. It is tough to win on the road and they have done a great job setting the tone for the rest of the season. Kennyh has been Kennyh. He's one of the top 2-3 overall players in our region and in my opinion Nick Butler is the best defender in the region. Those guys have led the charge and then obviously Donovan has been a great veteran addition. The freshmen have really been the pleasant surprise to me with Schumel, Max, Ethan and Matej all playing really big for us. It takes a full team though, 1-15 work hard every day in practice and we have bench guys that do not get minutes right now but are a big reason why we are able to come out and play well because of their effort against our starters in practice. We think we will be adding a few familiar names to the roster for the second semester and are really looking forward to playing at home in the Raiders Den for so many of our games in the second semester," stated Head Coach Ej Gallup.
The Raiders will be back in action after the mid-semester break on January 11th and 14th when they host back-to-back home games.
