COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Dominican Panthers men's basketball team is preparing for their final stretch before the holiday break with two games in the Northwest corner of the state of Ohio this weekend.  

In their final conference game for three weeks, the Panthers will take on the Tiffin Dragons on Saturday (Dec. 9) at 3:00 PM at the Gillmor Student Center. Sunday (Dec. 10) will see Ohio Dominican play at the Stroh Center in Bowling Green for an exhibition against the Bowling Green Falcons. Tipoff for the exhibition game is at 2:00 PM.

OPENING TIPOFF

• The Panthers will open a stretch of four games in a seven-day span this weekend on the road. Ohio Dominican will play at Tiffin and Bowling Green this weekend before returning home for two games before break. 
• Ohio Dominican dropped two road games last week, a 75-56 contest at Cedarville Thursday before a 60-54 defeat at (RV) Hillsdale on Saturday. The Panthers nearly erased a 13-point second half deficit at Hillsdale, getting within one point in the final minutes. 
• ODU sits at 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. 
• JeJuan Weatherspoon (Columbus, Ohio) finished with a pair of double-doubles last weekend, giving him four for the season, tied for most in the G-MAC. He averaged 13.0 points and 12.5 rebounds in two games. The Columbus native leads the G-MAC and the Panthers with 11.0 RPG and is 2nd for scoring with 19.2 PPG. Among the D2 players, he is 4th in defensive rebounds per game and 9th in rebounds per game.
  • Weatherspoon has three double-doubles in a row, being the first to string those games together since Hasan Varence with four in February 2020 (2/15-2/29).
• The freshman trio of Caleb Brooks (Florence, Kentucky), Sean McKitrick (Dayton, Ohio) and Luke Ruth (Grove City, Ohio) have helped the Panthers out early in their careers. All three of them join Weatherspoon in double figures this season. Brooks averages 13.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game with McKitrick scoring 12.0 points with a team-high ten threes. Ruth adds 11.3 points and 4.0 assists per game. He is sixth in the G-MAC for assists.
  • On the road last week, Ruth led the Black and Gold with 14.5 points per game with McKitrick (13.0 PPG) and Brooks (10.0 PPG) following suit at Cedarville and Hillsdale. 
• This will be the third matchup with the Division I Falcons in the Division II era. The Panthers faced the Falcons at the old Anderson Arena in 2010 - the 2nd game for the D2 era at ODU. The two teams faced off at the Stroh Center last season with BG winning the exhibition 102-65 in December. 
  • Since 2010-11 (the beginning of the Division II era), the Panthers have played nine contests with D1 teams. Including exhibitions, Ohio Dominican is 1-8 overall. The Black and Gold have played Bowling Green, Ohio and Toledo - all MAC schools in exhibitions in recent years. 
• In the Division II series history, ODU and Tiffin have met 24 times with Tiffin holding a 14-10 advantage, winning the last four matchups.
  • The Dragons were 72-56 and 63-52 winners in the 2022-23 season series.  
• The Panthers rank in the top five for the G-MAC in the categories of turnovers per game, free throw percentage and field goal defense. ODU is 2nd in the conference with 10.0 turnovers per game, 4th in free throw percentage (73.3%) and 5th in field goal percentage defense (44.2%). 

ABOUT THE DRAGONS

• Tiffin is 5-2 overall and 0-1 in the G-MAC with the holiday break looming for the Dragons. 
• The Dragons opened the season with five straight wins before losing the previous two contests within the region. 
• Tiffin won two games in Columbus against McKendree and Lewis to begin the season before three non-region wins at home. 
• In their only conference game so far, Tiffin was defeated 83-70 by #25 Walsh. 
• Wesley Jordan and Morgan Taylor are tied atop the Dragons lineup with 14.7 points per game. Jordan leads the team with 6.7 rebounds, 1.3 steals per game and a 90.3% free throw percentage (1st in the G-MAC). Taylor adds 4.1 assists (5th in the G-MAC) and 4.3 rebounds per contest. 
• Carius Key and Joshua Rivers are also in double-figures with 12.0 points and 11.4 points per game, respectively. Rivers is second on the team with 5.0 rebounds per game with Key tied with Taylor at 4.3 rebounds.
• Key holds the team lead for three pointers with 11 as Brandon Swaby and Ian Lopez follow with ten threes each. 
• The Dragons are scoring 74.9 points while allowing 67.6 points per game. In having the 8th best scoring offense, Tiffin sits 13th (of 13 teams) in the conference in field goal % (42.0%). 

ABOUT THE FALCONS

• Bowling Green has started 5-3 this season under first-year head coach Todd Simon. 
• The Falcons opened with back-to-back wins over Chicago St. and Arkansas St. before dropping three straight contests (Oakland, Bellarmine, Western Kentucky) prior to their current three-game winning streak with wins over Lipscomb, Canisus and Southern Indiana.
• Marcus Hill is the best scorer on the Falcons with an average of 19.9 points per game, the second highest MAC scorer. He also has a team-high 58 field goals and 21 assists (2.63 APG). 
• Jason Spurgin is second in scoring with 10.4 points per game. The 7-0 transfer senior is third on the team in rebounds (5.5 RPG) and first in blocks (10). 
• Rashaun Agee and Sam Towns are the top rebounders for the Falcons with at least 6.5 rebounds per game. Agee is 5th in the MAC and Towns is tied for sixth. 
• Bowling Green is scoring 69.8 points on average while allowing 67.5 points per game. BG is 1st in field goal defense (.416) and 3rd in scoring defense. 
• The Falcons are the best rebounding team in the MAC with 37.4 rebounds per game and 27.6 defensive rebounds.