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THIS WEEK
The Owls have two road conference games this week. First, on Wednesday, the Owls travel to American International for a game at 7:30 p.m. Then, they will go to Saint Rose on Saturday for a nationally televised game on the American Sports Network at 4 p.m.

SCOUTING AIC
The Yellow Jackets will enter Wednesday's game 10-12 overall and 6-10 in the conference. They have won their last three games. 
• The two programs have played 17 games against 15 common teams. The Owls are 14-3 in those games while AIC is 8-9.
• Cameron Dobbs is the leading scorer with 14.9 ppg. Trahmier Burrell and Juwan Moody also average double figures with 13.5 and 10.9, respectively.
• AIC has averaged 65.6 ppg during their three game win streak while allowing 59.3 ppg. The Yellow Jackets have also held those opponents to 36-percent shooting. The Owls average 46-percent from the floor this year.

ALL-TIME vs. AIC
The Owls are 26-47 all-time against the Yellow Jackets, including a 107-94 win in the first game of this year. Michael Mallory went off in that game, putting up a then-career high 43 points on nine three pointers made. Desmond Williams also posted a double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds.

SCOUTING SAINT ROSE
The Golden Knights will travel to Adelphi on Wednesday before hosting SCSU on Saturday. As of Monday, Saint Rose is 10-12 overall and 8-8 in the NE-10. 
• The Golden Knights are led by Tyler Sayre who scores 18.3 ppg (ninth in the conference), the only player to average double figures. Sayre also leads the team in rebounding at 5.4 a game. 
• The Owls and Golden Knights have played 15 common opponents thus far. Southern Connecticut is 13-3 in those games, while Saint Rose is 8-9. 

ALL-TIME vs. SAINT ROSE
The Owls are 14-19 all-time against the Golden Knights, including the 86-79 win earlier this season. In that game, SCSU was down at the half but came roaring back behind Michael Mallory and a 57-percent shooting effort in the second half. Mallory scored 20 of his 27 points in the final 20 minutes and finished the game going 9-of-12 from the field.Desmond Williams put up 19 points and 14 boards, as well.

OWLS OUTLAST DEEP-SHOOTING ADELPHI
Southern Connecticut earned a tough 92-81 win over the Panthers last Saturday. Desmond Williams finished with 25 points and 15 rebounds, tying a career high. Michael Mallory flirted with a triple-double with 24 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
• SCSU had a 21 point lead at the half. Adelphi would pull to within nine but Mallory wouldn't let it get any closer - he hit a three on the next Owl possession. Southern would maintain a double digit lead until the closing minute. 
• Adelphi shot 14-of-41 (34-percent) from three-point range - both the makes and attempts were the most by any Owl opponent this season. The Panthers got back into the game in the second half by shooting 10-of-22 from deep. Conversely, the Owls held Adelphi to just 8-of-33 from the field in the first half 
• Southern Connecticut forced 17 turnovers from Adelphi while turning it over just seven times themselves.

SEASON SPLIT WITH BRIDGEPORT
The Owls lost to Bridgeport 87-80 on Tuesday after winning th first matchup 104-96 in the second game of the season. Austin Carter led Southern Connecticut with 16 points, Michael Mallory had 15 and Desmond Williams posted 12 and seven rebounds.
• UB led the majority of the second half after Southern held a halftime lead. Carter helped the Owls cut the lead to two in the closing minute, but Devon Elliot hit a three-pointer with 23 seconds left to give the Purple Knights an 85-80 lead.
• On the next possession, the Owls drew up a play to get Mallory the ball in the corner for a three, but he could not convert it.

DESMOND WILLIAMS NAMED TO NE-10 WEEKLY HONOR ROLL
Desmond Williams has been named to the Northeast-10 Weekly Honor Roll for his efforts against Bridgeport and Adelphi. He averaged 20 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and 2.5 blocks per game for the Owls last week. In the win over Adelphi, he put up 28 points and 15 boards.

OWLS AMONG NORTHEAST-10 LEADERS
Michael Mallory and Desmond Williams are second and third, respectively, in the Northeast-10 in scoring. Mallory is scoring 23.3 points per game and Williams is putting up 21.6 points per game. Williams is also averaging 9.7 rebounds per game, tied for second in the conference.

IN THE LAST FOUR GAMES...
Desmond Willliams is averaging 29 points, 12.8 rebounds, 2.5 blocks, three steals and 44-percent shooting from three-point range. Austin Carter is averaging 12 points, 6.3 rebounds, four blocks, 54-percent shooting from the floor and 44-percent from deep.

RUNNING PAST THE GREYHOUNDS
The Owls went on a 28-5 run to close out the first half en route to a 96-76 win over Assumption on Tuesday. Desmond Williams scored a career high 40 points on 18-of-25 shooting. Forty points is tied for seventh on the all-time single-game scoring list, and 18 field goals are tied for second in field goals made per game. It is also the third time this year he has set a new career high. He added 14 rebounds and six assists for his tenth double-double of the year.
• Michael Mallory posted his first double-double this season with 16 points and 11 boards.
• Williams hit a 30-foot buzzer beater to close out the first half. He and the Owls would maintain a 20 point lead in the second half.
• Southern Connecticut tallied 42 points in the paint in the game and outrebounded Assumption 49-27. The 49 rebounds were tied for the third most by the Owls all year and the 27 rebounds allowed were the second fewest by an Owl opponent this year

MALLORY SETS NEW PROGRAM RECORD IN WIN
Michael Mallory scored an SCSU high 47 points in the Owls' 113-111 double overtime win at Bentley on Saturday, January 30. Twenty-two of those points came in the overtime periods and 30 of them came from three-point range.
• Desmond Williams and Stefon Williams are the only other players with points in overtime - they each had two.
• D. Williams quietly posted his eleventh double-double with 36 points and 15 boards.
• The win forces a three-way tie for first place in the NE-10, as SCSU, Bentley and Saint Anselm are each 12-2 in the conference. The Owls have the head-to-head tiebreaker over both teams.
• There were 12 ties and 10 lead changes in the game. Mallory hit back-to-back treys to give the Owls a six point lead with 2:10 left. The Owls held on after Keegan Hyland missed a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.

MALLORY - ONE OF DII's BEST
Michael Mallory's 47 points against Bentley is the second highest point total in Division II this season. He is also the only DII player with two 40+ point games this season.

PROGRAM RECORDS BROKEN AGAINST BENTLEY
• Michael Mallory's 47 points is a new program high.
• Mallory's 16 made field goals are third most all-time, and 41 field goals attempted are the most in program history.
• 113 points is the eighth most in program history.
• 43 field goals made is tied for the fourth most in program history, and 102 team field goal attempts is the second most in program history.
• 37 three-pointers attempted is the third most in program history.

MALLORY BECOMES SCSU ALL-TIME THREE-POINT KING
Michael Mallory is first in program history in both career three-pointers made and attempted. As of February 1, he has 238 threes made on 595 career attempts. He passed T.J. Trimboli for first on the list in three-pointers made on January 20 against Southern New Hampshire. 

WILLIAMS NAMED NE-10 PLAYER OF THE WEEK, MALLORY TO HONOR ROLL
Desmond Williams was named the Northeast-10 Player of the Week on February 1 for averaging 38 points, 14.5 boards, 5.5 assists, 3 steals and 2.5 blocks per game against Assumption and Bentley. Michael Mallory was named to the Commissioner's Honor Roll. He averaged 31.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
Isaiah McLeod and Joey Wallace both averaged over 20 minutes per game in Southern's first two games this season. McLeod averaged 15 points and three assists in two games, while Wallace had an average of nine points, two and a half rebounds and two assists.
• McLeod had a big game against Dominican on Saturday, scoring 19 points in 18 minutes of 7-of-9 shooting and 4-of-6 from deep.
• Wallace scored 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting against Bridgeport on Sunday, including 10 points in the close second half.

RECAPPING LAST YEAR
The Owls are coming off a year in which they went 24-8, finished first in the NE-10 Conference Southwest Division and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. It was the second straight year and the third time in program history Southern Connecticut made it that far in the national tournament. The Owls were ranked as high as No. 2 in the national rankings last season.

PRESEASON RANKINGS
The Owls are ranked No. 19 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Preseason Poll. The team is also ranked first in the Southwest Division in the NE-10 Men's Basketball Coaches' Poll and 13th in the Division II Bulletin Preseason Poll.

SAYING GOODBYE
The Owls are forced with the task of replacing Tylon Smith, Luke Houston and Jose Cruz this season. The three-member senior class of 2015 tied the program record for the most wins by one class in SCSU history with 85 victories over the past four seasons, tying the Class of 2000.
• Smith finished his career at SCSU as the program's all-time leader in career assists with 528, and ranks seventh in both scoring (1,778) and rebounds (705). Last season, he led the team with 18.7 points per game and 5.6 assists per game. He was also one of only two active players in all of college basketball (all divisions) last season with at least 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists for his career.
• Houston earned a spot on the All-Conference Second-Team last season after ranking ninth in the conference scoring 18.4 points per game and shooting 44.9 percent from the three-point line.

OWLS WELCOME STATE STAR
To replace Mike Donnelly who left to become the head coach at Florida Southern College, Southern Connecticut hired Scott Burrell, who spent the last eight seasons as an assistant coach at Quinnipiac University. Burrell was a first-round draft pick (20th overall) of the Charlotte Hornets in the 1993 NBA Draft and played for a total of four teams in the NBA over a fourteen year professional career. He also spent five years playing professionally in Japan, Spain, the Philippines and China before becoming an assistant coach with the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Developmental League. In his eight years at Division I QU, the Bobcats won 143 games and made it to the postseason four times. Quinnipiac also moved conferences from the Northeast Conference to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference during Burrell's tenure.

RETURNING STARTERS
Southern Connecticut will be led by junior Michael Mallory, who was second on the team with 18.3 points per game and tied for first in 3-pt shooting at 41-percent per game, senior Desmond Williams, who averaged 12.8 points on 47-percent shooting and 7.4 rebounds in 26.4 minutes per game last year, and senior Stefon Williams, who shot 52-percent from the field last season. Junior Austin Carter should see a spike in his minutes this season after averaging 18 minutes a game last year. Transfer Eric Ross should also see a good amount of playing time after averaging 7.2 points per game and 9.1 rebounds per game for Triton College last season.

MALLORY PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
Michael Mallory has been named a preseason All-American by The Sporting News and The Basketball Times. Mallory earned Third-Team All-Conference honors last season and set a single-season program record of 90 three-pointers made.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
Southern Connecticut went 10-4 at Moore Field House last season, including going 9-1 in the conference at home.

LAST SEASON'S CONFERENCE STATS
Southern Connecticut played at a fast pace last year, as it led the Northeast-10 in scoring (89.0 points per game), field goals made (1024), field goals attempted (2181), three-pointers made (312) and three-pointers attempted (848). The Owls had 153 more field goals and 291 more attempts from the field than the second place finisher in the conference. The team also finished first in steals per game (8.1) and blocks per game (6.1) and second in rebounds per game (40.1). Defensively, SCSU held its opponents to 41-percent shooting from the field, good for second in the conference.

STARTING OFF STRONG
The Owls have not lost a season opener in six seasons. In that time, Southern has beaten Chestnut Hill, Post, Goldey-Beacom, Molloy, Dowling and Dominican.

FACING OTHER NATIONAL TEAMS
The Owls will face six teams that reached the NCAA Division II Tournament a year ago - American International, Bridgeport, Southern New Hampshire, Stonehill, Saint Anselm and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

NEWCOMERS
The Owls will welcome five new players to the team this year, including transfers Eric Ross and Brett Buser and freshmen Isaiah McLeod, Joey Wallace and Toby Christensen.

WELCOME BACK
Southern Connecticut returns nine players from last year's squad - seniors Desmond Williams, Stefon Williams and Jack McCarthy, and juniors Michael Bozzuto, Austin Carter, Michael Mallory, Dominic Migliaro, Jonathan Paul and Lucas Van Nes.

THRIVING IN THE CLASSROOM
All nine returning members of last year's team were named to the Northeast-10 Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll during the course of the 2014-15 academic year. Student-athletes must maintain a semester average of at least 3.0 in order to be eligible for this honor.

UP NEXT
Southern Connecticut plays its final two regular season home games next week. It begins with a Wednesday night game against New Haven and concludes with a Saturday afternoon game against Le Moyne.