Roadrunner Men's Basketball has been on a roll under first-year head coach Will Wareham. The Roadrunners, now 20-2 overall, are the only NJCAA Division III program in the country with 20 or more wins at this point in the season. Wareham and the #8-ranked Roadrunners are set for an important Tuesday night showdown in Edison, NJ against Middlesex CC who are currently 2nd in the Garden State Athletic Conference standings.
"Our team reaching the 20 win mark is a credit to all the hard-work and dedication that our guys have put forth to include the coaching staff and athletic department," said Wareham. "Our team is doing a great job at focusing (mentally and physically) on the process and letting the outcome of our games be a product of it. Our two losses were opportunities to learn. One at the hand of the #4 team in the nation at the buzzer and the other to local rival Camden CC by a single bucket as well. There is still a lot of basketball left and we'd love to continue this approach to games and ride this wave of success and see where it takes us."
After starting the season 3-2, the Roadrunners have rattled off 17 consecutive wins. Freshman Ja'Zere Noel leads the team in scoring at nearly 22 points per game but sophomores Tyler Lunsford (15.3), Stevynjamaad Hawkins (14.9) and Luciano Lubrano (12.3) also average double-digits and have made large offensive contributions. Zy'Mire McCray and DJ Henderson round out the main rotation but reserves Stan Martin, Alex Angeles, Tyson Ellison and Evan Haines have all contributed and each has had at least one standout game.
The Roadrunners have eight regular season games remaining and have a chance to earn the #1 seed in the NJCAA Region XIX Tournament but have some of their toughest games still on the schedule. Tuesday's game at Middlesex is a key game as our home matchups against Passaic CCC, Camden CC, and Union CC. The Roadrunners wrap up their regular season with a key matchup at Northampton CC who reached the Region XIX semifinals last season.
"Roadrunner men's basketball has a great tradition with fourteen Region XIX championships," commented Director of Athletics Brian Rowan. "This team and coaching staff have really put in the work to be in a great position right now. We think they probably should be ranked a little higher than #8 nationally but what is important is taking it one game at a time and continuing to improve. We have a lot of confidence in Will and assistant coaches Al Genz and Cedric Elleby think we will be in the hunt to hang some banners at the end of the year which is what is important."
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