Cedarville University Yellow Jackets

March 18, 2019

WE ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! I cannot tell you all how happy I am to be writing this right now, but also a bit sad because the season is now over and this is the last post I will be writing until next season. Since this is the last post, it will be a bit of a long one, so stick with me for the recap of the NCCAA National Tournament and our season overall.

Our first game of the tournament was against Nebraska Christian, the #8 seed in the tournament. We handled our business and even got the lead up to 32 points at one time during the contest, eventually winning with a score of 80-58. Branden Maughmer led the way for our squad with 20 points. This win was a bit more sweet than normal, as it was Coach Estepp's 200th career win with the program! Congrats Coach! (see photo at right)

Next up was our second round game against Bluefield College of Bluefield Virginia. They were the #4 seed coming into the tournament and had beaten Grace College in their first round game. This was a much tougher game than we had in the first round, but we were able to lead for most of the game, and won 72-59. It was a very balanced effort with everyone that played scoring, and Conner TenHove putting in 20 points to lead us.

Our third game of the tournament, and last game of the season, was against #2 seed Roberts Wesleyan College from Rochester, New York. It was easily one of our worst starts to a game all year, as we went down 21-2 right off the bat. We fought back, though, and brought it to a 26-26 tie at halftime. This was largely in part to some stellar defense to end the half, and that defense continued into the second half, allowing us to secure a 64-58 win and the National Title! Conner TenHove led the way once again with 14 big points, and Colton Linkous hit some huge three-pointers to give us some momentum in the second half!

Branden Maughmer and Conner TenHove were both honored with individual awards for their accomplishments in the tournament. Branden received All-Tournament First Team honors, and Conner received the Most Outstanding Player award! Being able to hold the championship banner was one of the best feelings ever, and it was by the grace of God that we were able to accomplish that feat.

So, time for a recap. We finished our season at 21-12, which was one of the best records in recent history for the Yellow Jacket program. We had an 11-2 record at home, which we could not have done without the support and love received from everyone attending our games! We finished conference play with a 14-6 record, which was good enough for the #4 seed in the conference tournament. This was great for us, considering we had been picked to finish 7th before the season started! Even though we lost in our second game of the conference tournament, we were able to earn the #1 overall seed in the NCCAA National Tournament and bring a national championship banner back to the Callan Athletic Center.

Thank you so much to everyone who has read and followed along to this blog during the season! I can't wait for next year so I can start writing for you all again and let you know how we do!

See you all next season,

Seth

March 11, 2019

Welcome back to the blog everyone! I have some very big news to tell you, but first let me give you a recap of our experience in the G-MAC Tournament. 

Our first game was against Ohio Dominican last Tuesday evening and we knew it would be a tough game, but we knew we could beat them. It was a fairly low-scoring first half, but we had a five point lead at 32-27. We were happy that we had the lead, but we knew that ODU would come out with a vengeance in the second half, which meant that we'd have to step it up to another level if we wanted to advance. Advance to that next level we did, scoring 49 points and winning the game 81-77! It was a balanced effort scoring-wise, as all five of our starters scored in double digits with Branden Maughmer leading the way with 22 points. 

Next up we had Findlay on Friday night. The Oilers finished the season as the #1 seed in the G-MAC and #6 in the nation. We were 1-1 against them this season so we knew we could beat them. They shot the lights out, knocking down 16 three-pointers in the game at a 51% clip. This wasn't so good for us, unfortunately. Even though we played one of our best halves of basketball in the second half, it was not enough to take them down, and we lost by three, 80-77. Quinton Green stayed hot for us, putting in 24 points. 

Now for the big news! We have been selected as the #1 seed in the NCCAA National Tournament at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana! We play our first game on Wednesday against # 8 Nebraska Christian College, and we would love all the prayers and support you can give us! We have a great chance to bring back a national championship to Cedarville this year! 

Anyways, follow along with our progress and I'll be back to recap the season next week!


March 4, 2019

Welcome back Cedarville fans! It's conference tournament time! Before I talk too much about that, however, let me tell you about the last week of regular season games.

Our first game was against Davis & Elkins all the way down in Elkins, West Virginia. We had beaten them by 17 at our place earlier in the season, but we knew they weren't just going to lay down and give us the win. Boy was that accurate. It was a tight game the whole way, even going into overtime at the buzzer. We managed to pull ahead in overtime and won 96-84. Isaiah Speelman shot the lights out for us and scored a career high 33 points!

Our next game was Saturday afternoon at Alderson Broaddus, and it was their Senior Night which meant that they were going to come out swinging. They definitely did come out swinging, bursting out to an eight-point halftime lead. We got into some foul trouble throughout the game, and some less-than-our-best defense in the second half allowed them to score 50 points in that half for a final score of 88-77 in their favor. One bright spot for us was the roommate duo of Conner TenHove and Quinton Green combining for 47 points (26 and 21 respectively)!

Our first G-MAC Tournament game is in Callan against Ohio Dominican and will be played at 7:45 PM on Tuesday, March 5. If you're in town then we would really love your support! Prayers are always appreciated as well.

February 25, 2019

It was a great week to be a Yellow Jacket!

We loved how much support we got from everyone at the game, and I believe that helped us to be able to get as good of a win as we did! If you weren't there, we played against Lake Erie on Thursday night, which was also Senior Night for Gabe, Rob, and Grant!

Last time we played Lake Erie it was at their home gym, and we lost a close game in overtime. This time it was a much different story. We played hard, and came out with a 20-point victory for our last regular season game in Callan this year! It was a really special moment, especially for our seniors because this was their last regular season game in Callan ever. I can't speak for them personally, but I'm pretty sure they'd want to say thanks to everyone who has come to games and supported them during their tenures here.

Continued prayers and support are greatly appreciated, especially as we travel to West Virginia to play Davis & Elkins (Thursday, 5:30 p.m.), and Alderson Broaddus (Saturday, 4:15 p.m.). For now, however, please enjoy this Scott Huck Photo Gallery from last Thursday’s Senior Night!

Seth

February 19, 2019

Hello, everyone! This is going to be a bit of a shorter blog post since we only had one game this past week, but that doesn't mean it won't be good so keep reading! 

Like I said, we only had one game this past week, and it was on Saturday at home against Tiffin. Now, we normally have a game on Thursday, but since that wasn't the case this week, Coach Estepp gave us Monday off to rest up before a long week of practice. Thanks Coach! So, back to the game. This was our second match-up with Tiffin this season, and let me tell you, even though we won the first contest, we knew this one wasn't going to be easy. We had to buckle down defensively and give ourselves an advantage in that department, and let that fuel our offense. The game was tight the entire way, (40-37 at halftime, 86-80 at the final buzzer), but we pulled out the victory in front of what I heard to be a season high 1,604 fans! These same fans witnessed a monster showing from four of our freshmen who combined for 65 points, 23 rebounds, eight blocks, and six assists! 
 

Thanks to everyone for coming out this past Saturday, but we're gonna need even more people this Thursday for our game against Lake Erie! It's Senior Night for Robert Okoro, Gabriel Portillo, and Grant Zawadzki! Rob and Gabe have been with the program for four years each, and Grant joined us last year, and they have all made huge impacts on the program! So if you all could come out and support them I know they'd appreciate it! 

Continued prayers and support are always appreciated! 

Seth


February 12, 2019

Hello, everyone! Remember how last week I encouraged you all to keep a positive mindset? Well, us basketball players did, and it paid off with two big wins this past week!

Our first win came at the Owensboro Sportscenter, which is the home of the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers. It's always tough to play in the Sportscenter, and it was no different last Thursday night. It was a very hard-fought game wire to wire. We were up by one with about 13 seconds left, and Conner TenHove hit one of the biggest shots of the night: a dagger three-pointer with a defender right in his face! This put us up by four, and a stop at the other end to go along with a foul by KWC gave us a six-point victory, 64-58.

The morning after that win, we made the two-hour journey down to Nashville, Tennessee to play at Trevecca Nazarene on Saturday. Our bus driver, Andrew, was actually from the Nashville area and had gone to nearby Lipscomb University, so he knew all the best spots to check out. Friday night after practice we had some great local BBQ, and checked out the huge Opry Mills mall.

On Saturday before the game we were actually able to sit down with Trevecca's team and have a small prayer session, which was very encouraging! The game itself didn't start out exactly how we'd have liked, but we were able to bounce back and pull out a victory: 70-57!

Continued prayers and support are always appreciated, and I hope you can all make it to our home game this coming Saturday against Tiffin at 3:15 p.m. Let's get Callan rocking again!

Have a great week!

February 5, 2019

Hello, everyone! While this may not have been the best week for us record-wise, we got some great news regarding Levi Delimpo! As of February 1st, 2019, Levi is in full remission! You can see more details on the TeamLevi Facebook Page, but thank you to everyone who sent prayers up for him! Continued prayers are always appreciated however, because his fight isn't completely over yet. 

On the basketball side of things, we knew this week would be tough. We had to go on the road and play Findlay and Hillsdale, both of whom were, and still are tied for first in the G-MAC. Our first game was at Findlay on Thursday night. We started off really well, even leading by 15 points or so in the first half, but turnovers and the fact that we only shot 11 free throws for the game didn't help. Findlay came back and won 81-68. Kollin Van Horn just missed a double-double with 13 points and 9 rebounds in the game. 

Our Saturday game was at Hillsdale, and since it was an earlier game (3:15 p.m.) and a longer drive (three-and-a-half hours vs. two hours), Coach Estepp decided that we would go up the night before so we didn't have to leave at 7:30 in the morning to get there on time. For the second game in a row we enjoyed a lead in the first half, but were unable to keep it for the full 40 minutes. We committed 16 turnovers to their five, and were outscored by 10 in the second half to lose 79-66. Branden Maughmer put in 16 points for us in the loss. 

This week we travel to Kentucky Wesleyan and Trevecca Nazarene to play at their gyms after taking victories over each of them when we played at Callan.

Prayers and support are appreciated! Have a great week, and always try to keep a positive mind set knowing that God is in control. 

Seth


January 28, 2019

Thanks for coming out to the games last week, everyone! We should always have Callan rocking like we did on Thursday against Ohio Dominican!

Speaking of that game, we put together one of our best performances of the season and came out with a 79-63 victory! This win gave us sole possession of third place in the G-MAC, and was our sixth straight win at home! Our scoring off the bench was great again, and we outscored their bench 20-4!

Our Saturday game was against Ohio Valley, and was a very special game. It was Team Levi night! Levi is a very special kid with a rare form of bone cancer in his leg called metastatic Ewing sarcoma. He was diagnosed with the cancer in February of last year (at only 10 years old!) after having leg pains for quite a while. He has post treatment scans coming up really soon, so prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated!

If you would like to see a video that probably explains the situation better than I can, then go ahead and click on this LINK. After meeting Levi and talking with him a bit before the game, we were able to pull out a victory for him, 75-72! It wasn't the prettiest game, but a win is a win so we'll take it. Conner TenHove paced us with 25 points and 9 rebounds, and Quinton Green and Isaiah Speelman both put in 11 points off the bench.

Continued prayers and support would be appreciated as we travel to Findlay on Thursday and Hillsdale on Saturday this week. These two teams are currently tied for first in the conference, so we'll look to shake things up a bit.

Seth


January 21, 2019

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well and staying warm! Cedarville men's basketball had ourselves quite the week, collecting two G-MAC wins at home!

Our first game was last Thursday night against Alderson Broaddus. We were tied 26-26 at halftime, but managed to pull away in the second half to win 72-56. Our bench really came to play in this game, scoring 38 of our 72 points as a team! Senior Robert Okoro put in a season-high 14 points and swatted away two shots!

On Saturday we played against Davis & Elkins even though the weather wasn't in our favor. In spite of the game being moved up by two hours because of the bad weather, we came out of the gates with a lot of energy and won 88-71! Senior Grant Zawadzki had a career-high 13 assists, and we had a large enough cushion towards the end of the game that the #TowelGang (Andrew Stein, Andy Spurr, Adam Standley, Anthony Chaffey, and Cameron Roseman) were able to get some reps in the final minutes.

Continued prayers and support are greatly appreciated, and we hope you all can make it to our games this week! Those games are against Ohio Dominican (Thursday night / 7:45 p.m.), and Ohio Valley (Saturday night / 7:45 p.m. / Alumni Day / #TeamLevi Day).

Stay warm and safe in this weather, and have a great week!

Seth


January 15, 2019

Welcome back to the BLOG, everyone! This might be a bit of a shorter post, only because we only played one game last week. Don't worry though, because we are coming back home for a four-game stretch starting this week! 

To get back to last week's game, however, we played up at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio on Thursday night. This was our seventh-straight game away from the Callan Athletic Center, so we were all looking to end our road trip with a win against a good team in Lake Erie.

It was a tight battle for the entire forty minutes, and Lake Erie had a two-point lead with just two seconds left in the game. Freshman Branden Maughmer was able to find fellow freshman Kollin Van Horn under the basket to tie it up and force overtime. 

We scored the first four points in the extra period, but Lake Erie scored the next nine and took control, eventually winning with a score of 91-87. Branden paced us with 21 points, six rebounds, three assists, and three steals. 

Our next games are at home against Alderson Broaddus and Davis & Elkins on Thursday and Saturday, respectively. I hope you all can make it to at least one of the games! Continued prayers and support would be greatly appreciated as well! 


See you all next week, 

Seth


January 8, 2019

Welcome back from break, everyone! I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year's! The Cedarville men's basketball team has been traveling quite a bit since we got back to campus on December 27th, and I am here to tell you all about it.

As I said, we got back to campus on December 27th and got right back into the swing of things. We had a practice early in the day and left soon after for our game against Lake Superior State up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It was quite a long drive, so we split it up into two separate days of driving since we didn't have to play until the 29th. When it finally came to Game Day, we started off slow, but managed to keep it somewhat close and found ourselves in a seven-point hole at halftime, 51-44. We pulled closer in the second half, but Lake State edged us out in the final minutes to win the game 94-92.

After driving back to Cedarville all in one night, we had to prepare for our next game, which was on the road last Wednesday against conference foe Malone. We had a much shorter drive to this game, just around three hours up to Canton, Ohio. We shot the ball very well in the first half but allowed Malone to shoot the ball well also, leaving us at 42-42 at the half. We played much better defense in the second half, and behind a 32-point effort from Conner TenHove, pulled out a 87-76 victory to bring us to 5-1 in conference.

Our next game was this past Saturday afternoon against a school that is essentially neighbors with Malone: Walsh University. We left Saturday morning for our 3 PM game in Canton, only making one stop for our pre-game meal. A slow start put us in a seven-point hole at halftime: 34-27. Despite Colton Linkous pouring in 11 of his 14 points in the second half, Walsh held onto the lead to win 75-64.

Our next game is at Lake Erie on Thursday, January 10th, and continued prayers and support would be greatly appreciated, especially as we all start school this week.

See you all next week,

Seth


December 20, 2018

Welcome back to the blog, everyone! I hope you can forgive me for not submitting this earlier, but I wanted to make sure to give you all enough content, and with three games, two of which were in Florida, I'm pretty sure I have enough for you all.

Our first game during Christmas break was December 14th at Tiffin, and since it was right after finals, we were all pretty tired mentally. That was no excuse though, so we knew we had to focus up and do our best. We started the game very well, and went into halftime with a 15 point lead. In the second half, however, we didn't play as well and allowed Tiffin to come back and tie the game with under a minute left to play. Conner TenHove gave us the lead for good with a layup, and two free throws each from him and Isaiah Speelman gave us the cushion we needed for a 91-89 victory. Conner finished with 28 points in the win.

The following morning, we flew down to Florida for our next two games. We didn't play until Tuesday, but Coach Estepp wanted us to enjoy Florida for a bit before playing, so we went down and relaxed at the hotel for a bit.

On Tuesday we played Florida Southern, who came into the game ranked 10th in the country. We started off extremely slow, but a 25-5 run gave us the lead at halftime: 31-24. FSC fought back in the second half and gave themselves a three-point lead until a three pointer from Grant Zawadzki tied it up with 25 seconds left. Unfortunately, FSC hit a deep three just before time ran out to give them the 64-61 victory. Quinton Green finished with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Although our Wednesday game was also at FSC, we were matched up against Saint Leo. We went into the game thinking of it as a must-win, and we played like it. We had a 33-25 advantage at halftime, and 19 second-half points from Grant Zawadzki helped us keep the lead for a 77-70 victory. Grant finished with a career-high 34 points for the game.

So here we are at Christmas break, 7-5 overall, 4-1 in the conference, and only getting better. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, and I will talk to you all soon. 

Merry Christmas! Remember the reason for the season!


December 10, 2018

It was a great week of basketball, everyone! This last week for Cedarville Men's Basketball was our second week of G-MAC play, and we came in at 1-1 in the league. Fresh off our win against Findlay last Saturday, we were all in a good mood going into the week. 

Our first game of the week was on Thursday night against Trevecca. They were 0-5 going into the game, but we knew not to underestimate them, especially because of how tough it is to win games in our league. We shot lights out in the first half at 58%, and connected on seven three-pointers as well. Our hot shooting combined with our defense gave us a 20-point lead at halftime, and we continued to grow the lead to 94-64 by the final buzzer. Conner TenHove continued his high level of play as of late and collected a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Isaiah Speelman scored a career-high 20 points in 12 minutes off the bench. 

On Saturday we played Kentucky Wesleyan, and we knew it would be a tough game because of the quick turnaround from Thursday. We came out cold, but our defense allowed us to still be up 28-23 at halftime. In the second half we shot much better, and 15 second-half points from Quinton Green helped us pull away for a 76-59 victory. Quinton netted a total of 19 points for the game, which was a new career-high, and Kollin Van Horn poured in 17 points for us as well. 

This week we play at Tiffin on Friday, so prayers for safety in travel and play would be greatly appreciated. Prayers for travel down to Florida the following day would be appreciated as well. 

Thanks to everyone for all the prayers and support so far this season already! 

Seth


December 4, 2018

Welcome back to the blog, everyone! It was a long week for Cedarville Men's Basketball with so much going on (coming back from Thanksgiving break, starting to prepare for finals, and three games), and I'm here to tell you all how it went. Before I do that, however, I want to say good luck to all the students preparing for finals week! Christmas break is almost here and I know you all can get through finals and have a wonderful break, so keep persevering!

Our first game of the week was an exhibition game against NCAA DI Wright State University. Since this was an exhibition game it didn't count towards our record, but that didn't mean we could take the game lightly. WSU was the preseason pick to win the Horizon League, so we knew that we had our work cut out for us. We stuck with WSU during the first half, and for the first few minutes of the second, but we didn't shoot the greatest (23%). So even though we held them to 32% from the field, we were unable to grab the W, and lost 58-39. Conner TenHove led the team with eight points, and Colton Linkous collected nine rebounds.

Our next game was Thursday night, and signaled the start of Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) play. We opened up against Hillsdale, who was picked second in our league in the preseason poll. We started off the game shooting very well at 54% but offensive rebounds and second-chance points by Hillsdale put them up 36-32 at the half. We made our runs, and even tied it up 55-55 with 6:25 left in the second half, but Hillsdale pulled away at the end and the final score was 74-66 in their favor. Branden Maughmer, Conner TenHove, and Kollin Van Horn score 19, 18, and 18 respectively, and Conner collected 13 rebounds as well.

Saturday saw us play the 9th-ranked team in the country: the Findlay Oilers. Findlay was picked first in our league in the preseason poll. We knew we had to start off hot against a team good enough to be ranked in the Top 10 in the country, and we did just that. We scored the first seven points in the game and never lost the lead after that. Thanks to a three-point buzzer-beater from Grant Zawadzki, we led 38-26 at halftime. In the second half we were able to push the lead to 20 at one point, but Findlay made a run and cut it to six at around the two-minute mark. A huge three-pointer from Colton Linkous and a few free throws from Grant gave us the cushion we needed, ending the game with a win, 82-69. Grant finished with 26 points and shot 15-16 from the line. Kollin Van Horn matched his total from the previous game with 18 points.

We continue G-MAC play this week with two more home games: Trevecca on Thursday at 7:45 p.m., and Kentucky Wesleyan on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. If you're looking for a study break before finals these would be some great games to come to and support us!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Seth


November 26, 2018

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend! We had a short week basketball-wise because of break, with our only game of the week being a mid-day contest at Kentucky State University last Tuesday. The game was at 12 noon, and since it was an away game, we left Cedarville early Tuesday morning and headed down to KSU. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive, but Coach Estepp was nice enough have us stop for a Chick-fil-A breakfast! Thanks Coach!

We started the game slow, but were able to stick with KSU at first. Unfortunately however, nine turnovers and poor shooting in the first half put us down 34-25 at halftime. We shot better in the second half, and cut down on the turnovers (six in the half), but foul trouble haunted us and three players fouled out (Linkous, TenHove, Van Horn). We held fairly even with KSU in the second half, and dropped the contest 77-69.

We got back Friday night and we've been preparing hard for a long week ahead. We play at Wright State on Tuesday at 7 p.m., and then begin G-MAC play with home games against Hillsdale on Thursday (7:45 p.m.) and Findlay on Saturday (3:15 p.m.). We'd love it if everyone could come and support this week!

Please pray for senior Grant Zawadzki, as he is currently recovering from a sprained ankle suffered during a recent practice.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.


November 19, 2018    

This past week for Cedarville Men's Basketball was busy, but very beneficial to us as a team as we were able to practice more and prepare as best we could for the Callan Classic. Like last weekend, we had one game on Friday and one on Saturday. There were a few differences between the two weekends though. First, our games this last weekend were the only two of the week, which gave us the entire week to prepare, instead of just a few days. Second, these were our first home games, which is always a mood booster, as it is such a great feeling to play at home and show all of the fans what we have been working on since August. It's also pretty great to have the student section there, as well as just playing on a familiar court.

On Friday we played the Tigers from Campbellsville-Somerset. Our two programs had never played each other before, and there wasn't very much information about them that we could find other than the fact that all but one player on the team were freshmen. This limited our ability to prepare for them specifically, so we instead focused on what we wanted to do and decided to just play our game and not let them get us out of a rhythm. We didn't play bad in the first half, but we also didn't play our best. We changed that in the second half, scoring 67 points and won the game 112-69. Freshmen Branden Maughmer and Quinton Green paced us with 19 points and 18 points respectively.

Our Saturday game was against Shawnee State, and although we won against them last year, we knew we wouldn't just be handed the win this year. Our first half defense was not what we wanted it to be, and it left us in an eight-point hole at halftime. We played better in the second half, and even had a one point lead with just 1.1 seconds remaining. However, two free throws from Shawnee State gave them the lead, and the eventual win. Branden Maughmer stayed hot, collecting 30 points in 37 minutes of game time.

We only have one game this week before Thanksgiving break. We travel to Frankfort, KY on Tuesday to play Kentucky State at 12 noon, and prayers for safe travel would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for all your support, and Happy Thanksgiving just a bit early.

Seth Dittmer


November 13, 2018

This past week for the Cedarville men's basketball team was a busy one, as we opened up our season with three games in five days! On Tuesday evening we made the drive up to Akron, Ohio, to play the University of Akron. Akron is a NCAA Division I team, so it was an exhibition game and didn't count towards our record, but it was still a great experience and a good way to start off the season for our team. Although we ended up losing the game, we learned a lot about how we play together as a team and what we need to do to improve and become the best team we can be this season. Freshman Branden Maughmer played very well throughout the contest; putting up 15 points and collecting seven rebounds.

Our second game of the week was against Quincy University as a part of the G-MAC/GLVC Crossover at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. Quincy was polled at 13th in their league for preseason rankings, but since the GLVC is a good conference, we made sure not to underestimate them as a team. Although we struggled to connect on shots during the first half, our defense kept us in the game, and the score at halftime was 25-24 in Quincy's favor. Our shooting in the second half was not much better, as we ended up shooting just 26% for the game. Quincy made a run late in the second half and kept a lead to win the game. Although we lost, we needed to put it in the past and focus on our next game which was against Truman State the following afternoon.

Truman State was polled at 6th in their league, so while we were confident that we could win, we knew we had our work cut out for us. Our shooting slump to start the season was finally broken, as we shot 57% overall for the game. We had some hiccups, but led for all but 52 seconds of the game thanks to our defense and our hot shooting. We put up 52 points as a team in the second half, which was only one point shy of our total for the entirety of the game against Quincy (53) the day before. This was a great feeling, as Coach Estepp has been telling us all preseason that we can shoot the ball, and shoot it well. Conner TenHove paced us during the win with a career-high 31 points along with 10 rebounds, and Grant Zawadzki had a near triple-double with 14 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists.

We have our first home games this week and we hope you can make it to both of them! In the Friday game of the Annual Don Callan Classic, we play Campbellsville-Somerset at 7:45 p.m. On Saturday, we play Shawnee State, also at 7:45 p.m.

We appreciate the prayers for travel over the weekend, and hope that you keep us in your prayers throughout the season.

See you at the games!

Seth Dittmer


November 8, 2018

Welcome everyone to the first installment of this year's Men's Basketball Blog! Many of you may not know me, as I am one of six new players on the team this year, but I'm sure we'll become familiar with each other throughout the season. Of the six newcomers, five are freshman. These five are Branden Maughmer (#2), Isaiah Speelman (#5), Kollin Van Horn (#10), Anthony Chaffey (#11), and Cameron Roseman (#24). I (Seth Dittmer #13) am the sixth and final newcomer this season, and I am a junior after transferring in from UW-Milwaukee. Also, new to the playing floor this year but not new to the team, is Quinton Green (#55). Quinton is in his first year of eligibility after red-shirting and sitting out last season.

This preseason was tough, but it could have been much tougher if we had not prepared as much as we did during the summer. As part of our conditioning this year, we were expected to be able to complete a mile run in a specified time. Guards at one pace, forwards at another, and posts at a third. Making these times were a big focus for all of us this summer, and our hard work paid off. Every single person completed the mile run withing the specified time, with many of us finishing significantly ahead of our goal. This was a big victory for the team, as we knew that since we were able to do this so well, we could accomplish anything thrown at us the rest of the year.
 

Overall, this preseason was great for us as a team and a family. We grew much closer and we've formed relationships that will last even for the rest of our lives after basketball. Our season started Tuesday when we played at Akron, which was a great teaching experience for us as a team. We leave Thursday, November 8 for Kirksville, Missouri to play against Quincy (Friday at 6:30 p.m. EST) and Truman State (Saturday at 4:00 p.m. EST).

Prayers are always appreciated, and we encourage you all to watch/follow along if possible.

Here's to a great season!




Seth Dittmer is a 6-foot-9 junior center from Pewaukee, Wisconsin. He is in his first year with the Yellow Jackets after transferring from NCAA I Milwaukee and is majoring in journalism.