GREENWOOD, Ind. – As teams around the Great Midwest Athletic Conference transition into the Thanksgiving layover, cross country postseason competition officially came to a close while basketball action continues to intensify around the league.

 
Around the landscape in the still-young hoops season, the Cedarville and Davis & Elkins women have both stormed out of the gates at 5-1 and 4-1, while the Alderson Broaddus men have quietly won three straight in non-conference action.
 
The Lady Jackets honored their second straight G-MAC Athlete of the Week in Kaysie Brittenham while Malcolm Tatum of Alderson Broaddus put up big numbers in a pair of road victories for the Battlers last week.
 
The NCAA Division II Midwest Regional hosted by the University of Southern Indiana was a strong platform for the G-MAC talent to measure up against other programs in hopes for a bid to Louisville and the NCAA Championships.
 
Running the irregular distances of 10,000 meters on the men’s side and 6,000 meters on the women’s side gave the G-MAC an opportunity to go head-to-head against the GLIAC and GLVC.
 
Both respective runners of the year from the league, Caroline Hampton and Logan Rodgers of Trevecca, once again turned in the best times from the G-MAC contingent while Cedarville’s team scores anchored a strong weekend showing by the conference in Evansville. 

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Hampton threatened to shatter her own conference 6K record previously set at the G-MAC Championships in Owensboro as the freshman narrowly missed an individual qualifying time for the NCAA Championship race.
 
Hampton’s impressive G-MAC Runner of the Year campaign in her first season at the collegiate level culminated with a time of 21:30 and a 15th-place finish in a field of 211 runners.
 
Junior Jenny Brewer of Alderson Broaddus was also in the top-30 of the individual standings and nine of the new top-10 6K times have been recorded this year alone by runners from the G-MAC.
 
Four women’s program’s competed with Cedarville finishing 10th, Trevecca placing 16th, Alderson Broaddus pulling in 27th and Davis & Elkins closing in 30th.
 
CU’s all-conference trio of Alex Archambault, Olivia Esbenshade and Carysn Koch, all finished within 23 seconds of each other to lead the Lady Jackets, who now possess the G-MAC’s top 6K team time previously established two weeks ago.
 
The sophomore Rodgers made his presence felt in the men’s field, pacing his way to a 31:45 in the 10K distance for 28th overall. The Trojans placed four runners in the top 100 while Cedarville, coming in 10th, had six individuals in the top-100 performers.
 
Cedarville’s men represented the top G-MAC program again in 10th of 29 and the Yellow Jackets were still without the services of senior Ben Tuttle. Another senior, Clay Watson, led the charge and finished inside the top 50 overall.
 
Three schools competed in addition to Cedarville, including Trevecca (12th), Davis & Elkins (27th) and Alderson Broaddus (28th).

Salem International’s offense went head-to-head against No. 1 West Liberty this past week, falling in a high-scoring affair against the Hilltoppers despite Jamal Robinson emerging as one of the league’s top scorer early on for the Tigers (0-3).
 
Robinson was not in the lineup for one game vs. Mercy and will appear in the league’s statistical leaders following Salem International’s next played game if active. SIU’s Alex Webb hit eight three-point baskets as part of his game-high 32 points to help pick up the scoring slack against Mercy on Tuesday.
 
Behind the efforts of Tatum, Alderson Broaddus (3-1) has won three straight since the season opener.
 
The Battlers took down Virginia Union and Bowie State on the road last week as Tatum, a first-team all-conference guard, averaged nearly 19 points, five assists and four rebounds in those two games.  To preserve a late three-point lead against Bowie State in the closing moments, ABU alertly fouled to send a player to the line without a chance to hoist a potential game-tying shot from long range.
 
The scoring numbers for Tatum, one of the nation’s best 20 free-throw shooters last year, could have been even better with a few more makes at the charity stripe.
 
Central State’s (2-2) Masceo Harmon flirted with a triple-double against Kentucky State with 15 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, while Raheem Lemons had another double-double with 16 points and 11 boards. But it was Sterling Gilmore with the theatrics as he hit a buzzer-beating three with no time left on the clock to split a 64-64 tie.
 
Cedarville (1-4) continues to work its way through an early-season gauntlet against GLIAC competition and has been on the short end of some tough contests recently against the likes of Hillsdale and Grand Valley State.
 
Even with defenses keying in on sharp-shooting Marcus Reineke, the Cedarville guard averaged 27 points per game with deadly percentages from the field. He was 17-of-32 overall and even better dialing it up from long distance, making 10-of-17 tries from beyond the arc. He was also a perfect 10-for-10 on free throws.
 
Davis & Elkins (1-3) secured its first win of the season against Lock Haven by a 12-point margin and the Senators rode the hot hand of Alex Vasiljevic, who averaged 13.3 points per game in three contests.
 
Preseason favorite Kentucky Wesleyan (3-2) continues to find its footing after suffering a one-point defeat against Northwood and a four-point road loss against Lake Superior State. The Panthers rebounded last night with a 28-point drubbing against Lane, which shot just over 18 percent in the first half and 30 percent overall on the game. Ken-Jah Bosley continues to do damage at the free-throw line and Devin Langford had a 15-point, 12-rebound double-double last night.
 
Trevecca (1-4) has suffered back-to-back home setbacks following a busy traveling portion of the schedule early on. After testing Div. I opponents Vanderbilt and Belmont, the Trojans had four players average double-digit scoring this past week in three contests.
 
Ohio Valley (0-1) was idle with the exception of an exhibition against Wofford. The Fighting Scots led early and trailed by just 11 at the break, but the Terriers outscored OVU by 17 in the second half to pull away. 

Cedarville’s duo of Raegan Ryan and Kaysie Brittenham is already established as one of the most effective backcourt combos in the country after both have already been named G-MAC Athlete of the Week.
 
Ryan and Brittenham have combined to sink 30 three-pointers and average over 35 points per game. Kayla Linkous has quietly put up 11.2 points per contest and paces the entire league in free-throw percentage with a remarkable start of sinking 29-of-30 tries (96 percent).
 
The Lady Jackets (5-1) are red hot and have carved out resume-building wins Tiffin and Ferris State in the past week. The only loss to this point in the year was on the road at Bellarmine and Brittenham contributed a career-high point total in Cedarville’s effort.
 
Davis & Elkins (4-1) has bounced back from a defeat to begin the season against Bluefield State and the Senators are winners of three straight. D&E started with four consecutive games at home and are in the midst of a lengthy seven-game road stretch.
 
Davis & Elkins has the league’s top scoring offense at over 82 points per game and features three of the G-MAC’s top-10 scorers in Sharmaine Baker, Ashley Bowles and Stephanie Wooten. Wooten also leads the league in assists, dropping off almost eight dimes per game to her teammates.
 
At the time of release, Kentucky Wesleyan (0-4) was still in search of its first win along with Alderson Broaddus (0-4), Ohio Valley (0-4), Ursuline (0-4) and Salem International (0-6).
 
It has been a tough start for the above schools as they attempt to right the ship before starting the conference schedule. Central State is also trying to shake out of an early season funk and suffered a one-point home loss against Kentucky State last night.
 
Inkera Patterson has been a bright spot for Salem International and ranks as the league’s third-best scorer. She is coming off a 25-point, five-steal effort and has been the team’s top scorer in four of its six games.
 
By the numbers, Trevecca’s defense is the stingiest in the conference, permitting opponents to score under 65 points per game. Kaci Britt Bell is fourth in the conference in scoring (15.5 ppg) and second in rebounding (9.0 rpg) only behind Amy Brooks of Ohio Valley (9.8 rpg)