Due West, S.C. – The Erskine Basketball Teams return to action next Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening in non-conference match-ups.

The Erskine Women’s Basketball Team (0-7) seeks their first victory playing at home against in-state rival Southern Wesleyan University on New Year Eve’s starting at 2:00 p.m.  There is no charge for admission to this game.

The young Fleet team is led by freshman guard Tori Whittenberg, who is averaging 12.1 points per game.  Sophomore Andrienne Bannerman has also gotten off to a nice start and is second on the team in both scoring (10 ppg) and rebounding (6.1 rpg), although junior post player Jana Dixon pulled down 8 rebounds in her first game since returning from injury. Sophomore Tara Potter currently leads the team on the boards averaging 7.7 rpg.

The men’s team (5-1, 2-1) plays their first three games on the road before returning to the friendly confides of Belk Arena on January 9^th to face conference-leading King College (7-1, 3-0).  Erskine travels up the mountain to play Brevard College (2-7) on New Year’s Day starting at 7:00 p.m.

The Fleet, who are off to their best start since joining the NCAA Division II ranks in 1995, have all five starters averaging double-figures in scoring.  As expected, senior Corey Sorrell leads the Fleet in scoring and rebounding averaging 22 points and 7 rebounds per game.  Junior guard DeShaun Hall is enjoying a breakout year and is second on the team in both scoring and rebounding at 14.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.  Junior point guard Mike Gabbard is also having an all-conference worthy season handing out a conference-leading 6.5 assists per game while averaging 13.8 points per game.  Freshman Roderick Perkins has shown outstanding athleticism blocking a team-high 10 shots, second in Conference Carolinas, while averaging 13.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.  But maybe the biggest surprise at this point in the season is Jake Haslam’s performance. The senior sharp-shooter, who has started all six games, has converted 34.1 percent of his team-leading three point shots to average 10.1 points per game.

Both teams return to conference play on Thursday and Saturday next week travelling to Coker College and Pfeiffer University respectively.