Despite facing a challenging nonconference schedule to start the season, the Elon University men's basketball team is off to its best start through eight games since the 1991-1992 season. After freshman guard Austin Hamilton hit a deep-three with two seconds left to sink the Naval Academy Dec. 3, the Phoenix's defeat of UNC Greensboro Monday improved its record to 6-2.
With two SoCon games under its belt, Elon will play another set of nonconference games before returning to the grind of conference play Jan. 5 against Georgia Southern University. The Phoenix host Lynchburg College 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11 and will then play Dartmouth College, San Diego State University and the University of North Carolina.
These games are designed to test the players and help prepare the team for situations it will likely see later in the season, head coach Matt Matheny said.
"Our nonconference schedule has done a tremendous job preparing us for SoCon games, which are very difficult," he said. "What I like about this (Navy) game is that we lost the lead. In the South Carolina game, in the second-half we held on to the lead. Our backs were up against the wall in different ways from the South Carolina game or the Furman game because we were playing from behind. Yet another experience that does prepare us."
Players like to see how they stack up against good teams, sophomore guard Jack Isenbarger said.
"That's why Coach Matheny schedules games like Navy, like UMass, like South Carolina, to see the best competition there is so that going into conference play we feel more prepared than our opponents," he said.
Isenbarger also said each team has "unique styles" and that the coaching staff schedules some games because they play similar to SoCon opponents. For example, Princeton University plays a lot like Samford University, Isenbarger said.
"We schedule nonconference games for a variety of reasons," Matheny said. "One is to prepare us for teams we're gonna see in our conference. Navy is tough. They compete, battle for rebounds. There are a lot of teams in our conference like them." He cited The Citadel, Davidson College and Wofford College as examples.
The Phoenix was able to beat Navy despite a poor shooting night in which the team shot just 33.3 percent from the floor and 25 percent from three-point range. Navy was worse, though, as it shot 27.5 percent overall and only 19 percent from behind the arc.
Credit those numbers to Elon's defense, something Matheny has often preached this season.
"As much as we shoot the three, there's gonna be nights when we don't make a lot of perimeter shots," he said. In that situation, we have to be consistently good defensively to give ourselves a chance to win the game."
That's exactly what happened Dec. 3 against Navy. With the score tied at 48 with about 30 seconds remaining, Elon decided to hold the ball for the last shot. Hamilton found himself with the ball after the designed play wasn't there, and launched a deep desperation three that hit backboard, rim and net to defeat the Midshipmen from Annapolis, M.D.
"I had to throw it up and it went in," said Hamilton, who was rewarded by fans chanting his name and throwing fake $10 dollars bills into the stands. "Somebody asked me after the game did I call backboard but I didn't."