Okigweh

On Saturday, the Rams smoothly passed Kutztown, 59-36, in the Butcher Center to improve their overall record to 13-6 and their conference record to 9-3.

Shepherd, along with the Warriors and Golden Rams, have separated themselves from five of the conference’s struggling East Division entries.

In the next few days the Rams will find out in what direction the season is actually going, when they face East Stroudsburg in the Butcher Center tomorrow and then take a trip to West Chester this coming Wednesday.

Only Millersville of the other East Division teams has shown much merit, with Kutztown, Lock Haven, Bloomsburg, Mansfield and Shippensburg all facing losing seasons.

Davis

In a game of half-court offenses bereft of any fast breaks or flashy up tempo racing, Shepherd virtually wrapped the Golden Bears in a defensive vise that allowed few uncontested shots and fewer still offensive rebounds to the visitors, now 7-12 overall and 3-9 in the conference games.

Chase Paar, at 6-foot-10, was never troubled by the smaller Kutztown defense and was a frequent scorer from the foul line where the pace-controlling Rams went 10-for-15 as opposed to Kutztown’s desultory 3-of-9 showing.

Contesting, partially blocking or altering nearly any shot-attempt the Golden Bears tried from in the lane, Shepherd was a major reason the visitors finished with a 15-for-54 showing (21percent) from the field.

Kutztown was not selfish, but its dribble-based half-court offense yielded only a game-long series of low percentage shots and little scoring.

Three freshmen — Brody Davis, Elwyne Wordlaw and Favor Okigweh — have been seamlessly blended with Chase Paar, Marcus Banks, Jarod Robinson and Carson Poffenberger to steadily push the Rams toward the top of the Division standings and a now probable spot in the conference tournament.

Wordlaw

While the final score was Shepherd’s longest lead of the afternoon, once the Rams moved ahead, 18-17, the lead never slid away again.

Successful free throws in the last few minutes of the first half had Shepherd in front, 26-19, at the break. And Kutztown’s 17-point second half didn’t menace the Rams at all.

Shepherd always found Paar whenever its scoring lagged for short stints.

He shot his lefthanded, in-close attempts over his inches-shorter defenders and proved a dominant force throughout the quiet of the game.

Just over the horizon now are both East Stroudsburg (the current East Division leader) and West Chester (scrambling with the Rams for second place).

Shepherd has staked an ownership over many of the East Division teams.

Now comes a pair of games that will mostly determine the Division’s order of finish and the seeding for the PSAC tournament.