Start of new year finds Rams at home
Just before the end of the year, Shepherd has a home game against faltering Lincoln in Philadelphia. The Rams already have wins over two other Philadelphia schools mired in their losing ways: Holy Family and Chestnut Hill.
Come January, Shepherd has a pair of Mountain East Conference games at the Butcher Center against schools with winning conference records.
On Thursday, the Rams see Concord, now second in the 12-team league with a 5-1 record in conference games and an 8-3 mark overall. That game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Earlier this week, Concord played at Akron and could come into Shepherdstown off a loss.
Then, on Saturday, it will be Virginia-Wise coming to Shepherdstown for a 4 p.m. tip-off. The Highland Cavaliers are only 5-6 overall but sport a 4-2 Mountain East Conference record.
With freshman Cam Stephens starting the last two games, Shepherd now employs an eight-man rotation. With Stephens getting 13 minutes of court time per game, the other seven players in the rotation receive anywhere from 21 minutes a game to the 36 given to center A.J. Carr.
Carr scores 17.5 points a game while getting 8.3 rebounds and making 49 percent of his field goal attempts. He converts 80 percent of his free throws.
Thomas Lang scores 13.4 points a game while making 47 percent of his field goal tries, 47 percent of his three-point attempts and 84 percent of his free throws.
Steffen Davis scores 13.1 points a game, but makes only 36 percent of his field goal attempts. Davis converts 81 percent of his foul shots.
Winston Burgess scores at an 8.8 clip and gets 5.9 rebounds a game. He makes 68 percent of his shots, but just 58 percent of his free throws.
Derek McKnight scores at an 8.1 clip and converts 80 percent of his foul shots. Gavin McTavish is scoring 7.7 points per game while making 52 percent of his field goal attempts. Devin Smith averages 6.6 points a game. Stephens has scored two points a game, but made just 2-of-6 free throws in the 11-game season.
The Rams are 5-6 overall and should even their overall record by beating Lincoln.
Lincoln is Shepherd’s last non-conference game.