Shepherd’s men and women are ready to get back on the court and resume their schedules that were put aside because of the Christmas holidays and the close of the first semester of the school term.

On Saturday, Jan. 3, the Shepherd women return to the Mountain East Conference when they see Notre Dame in a 2 p.m. afternoon game at the Butcher Center.

The Shepherd men will be back to their schedule in the Butcher Center just after the women finish on Saturday when they face Notre Dame at 4 p.m.

On Monday, Jan. 5, the Shepherd women will play Urbana at 5:30 p.m. in the same Butcher Center, to be followed by the Shepherd men at about 7:30 p.m.

Led by senior forward Morgan McDonald’s 19.9 scoring average and the double figure scoring of Austin Cunningham and Ryan McTavish the Rams come into the new year with a 7-3 pre-Christmas record. Shepherd is 2-2 in its four Mountain East Conference games.

Freshman point Steffen Davis has moved into the starting lineup and the Rams seem to have settled on a player rotation that features McDonald, Cunningham, Ryan McTavish, Davis and Naim Muhammad as the starters and A.J. Carr, Skyler Roman, Gavin McTavish and Garett Burkhead off the bench.

West Liberty with its 9-0 record and Glenville with its 8-2 record have the conference’s best overall marks to date.

Unbeaten in conference play with a 4-0 record, the Shepherd women are also 7-3 overall.

The Rams have meaningful road wins at both Glenville and Charleston on their pre-Christmas record.

Playing without injured senior center Gabby Flinchum, the Rams have been paced in scoring by freshman reserve guard Morgan Arden, who scores at a 12.5 clip. Also averaging in double figures are Cara Mason (11.1), Rachel Johnson (10.8) and Alex Weakland (10.2).

The starters have been Mason, Johnson, Weakland, Liz Myers and Briana Vaden with major contributions coming from reserves Arden, Kristina Prange and Haily Brown.

The three best overall records among the Mountain East Conference women reside with Fairmont (8-2), Charleston (7-3) and West Liberty (6-3).

On the high school front, Jefferson owned four wins (Legacy Christian, Silver Oak Academy, Broadfording Christian and Cesar Chavez from Washington, D.C. and a loss to Joppatowne (Maryland). The Cougars are next at home on Jan. 16 against Musselman, but see Spring Mills on the road on Jan. 10 and Martinsburg on the road on Jan. 13.

Washington High lost four of its first five games (Sherando, Fairmont Senior, Southern (Maryland) and Sherando again) with the win coming against James Wood.

Washington’s next home game is against Legacy Christian on Jan. 6.