Mens Basketball

Garrett Leads UD to Victory on Senior Night

It ended fittingly. On senior night at the Maher Center, UD's lone senior, guard Anthony Garrett (Ovilla, TX/Ovilla Christian), put up a career high with 20 points and sank two late free throws to seal a 73-68 Crusader victory against the Dallas Christian College Crusaders on Tuesday night. In front of a raucous crowd of 247 people, Garrett was perfect from the field going 6 for 6, including all 4 of his 3-pointers and 4 trips to the charity stripe. Also scoring in double figures were junior forward Travis Ekmark (Yokosuka, Japan/Nile C. Kinnick HS), with 17, junior guard Jim Norton (Louisville, KY/Holy Angels Academy) with 10, and sophomore forward Noah Petit (Fairfax, CA/Sir Francis Drake) with 15 and a game high 10 rebounds. Ekmark also added 9 boards and 2 blocks on the night.

2008-09 Season In Review

Crusader Basketball Season Comes to a Close
With a close loss to Wells College in the North East Athletic Conference Tournament, the University of Dallas' Men's basketball season came to a close. The team lost in the semifinals of the conference tournament in their first year as an associate member of the NEAC. The Crusaders finished the year with a record of 9-18 highlighted by wins against Rhodes College, Chapman University, and UC-Santa Cruz, three highly regarded teams. The Crusaders also finished the season strong with wins in three of their last five games and hope to build on coach Jarred Samples first year as head coach of the men's basketball team. The team is only losing senior guard Anthony Garrett (Ovilla, TX/Ovilla Christian) and will be returning four starters for the 2009-2010 season with a good amount of experience.

In senior Anthony Garret's final season, he averaged a solid 6.2 points per game along with leading the team as the only senior on the team. His season was highlighted by an impressive senior night in which he led the Crusaders with 20 points on a perfect shooting night from the floor in his final home game. The team will miss the senior in the coming year but has plenty of underclassmen talent to step up their game.

During the 2008-2009 season, junior guard Jim Norton (Louisville, KY/Holy Angels Academy) led the Crusaders with 13.4 points per game. The sharpshooter shot 40.8 percent from the field this year, including a team leading 43 three pointers on the season. Norton performed well despite a nagging ankle injury and hopes to build on his success and have a stellar senior season. Despite the injury, he was honored by the Association of Division III Independents (AD3I) 3 times throughout the year as the association's player of the week, and was named to the AD3I's second team All-Independent Team at the end of the 2008-09 campaign.

Junior guard Travis Ekmark (Yokosuka, Japan/Nile C. Kinnick H.S.) was also a consistent contributor for the Crusaders, averaging a near double-double. He led the team with 7.1 rebounds a game and averaging 9.3 points per game. Ekmark provided quite the defensive presence leading the team with 30 blocks and coming in second in steals with 54. Ekmark's presence on the interior will be essential to the Crusader's success in 2009. During the season he was named both the AD3I's and NEAC's player of the week 1 time, and was named to the AD3I's All-Independent Team as an Honorable Mention player.

Junior point guard Jeff Pritchard (Frisco, TX/Frisco H.S.) was the second leading scorer on the team, averaging 10.7 points per game to go along with his team leading 56 assists on the year. Pritchard was the other half of the defensive presence for the Crusaders leading the team with 74 steals on the year. In the process he broke the UD record for steals in a season and also set the standard for steals per game in a campaign and the career record for steals per game. The team hopes that Pritchard can be the floor general that will be needed in the coming season. Throughout the season, he was named the AD3I's player of the week 2 times and was selected to both the NEAC and AD3I post-season teams. He was named to the NEAC post-season team as a honorable mention guard, and to the AD3I All-Independent Team as a first team guard.

Junior Pete Popovich (St. Louis, MO/Gateway Academy) was the other big man for the Crusaders this year to go along with Ekmark. Popovich was the second leading rebounder on the year, averaging 4.9 points per game to go along with 7.9 points per game. He like Ekmark shot a high percentage from the field and hopes to build on his success from the 2008-09 season.

Sophomore forward Noah Petitt (Fairfax, CA/Metro Christian Academy) led the underclassman for the Crusaders this year. Petitt averaged 8.0 points per game while leading all the underclassmen in minutes played. He along with the other four returning juniors will contribute to a formidable lineup in the coming year.

The Crusaders, a young team under first year head coach Jarred Samples, has potential to be a good team in Division III. Returning most of their starters and top bench players, the team will be able to build on this year and hopefully establish themselves as a force in the basketball ranks.

North Eastern Athletic Conference

Packard, Pritchard Named to AD3I All-Independent Teams

KANSAS CITY, MO.--- Doug Hammond, who led Green Mountain College to a 21-5 record and a first-place finish in the AD3I Northeast Regional Championship game, headlines the All-Independent Men's Basketball teams announced today by the Association of Division III Independents.
Hammond, a senior forward-center from Brooklyn, NY, who averaged 23.4 points (10th in Division III) and 14.8 rebounds (second in Division III) per game, was named the player of the year. Hammond led the nation with 114 blocked shots (4.6 per game) and posted double-double outputs in scoring and rebounds in 22 of 25 contests.
Leading the second team of the All-Independent Team is Joe Packard, a senior from the University of Dallas. He attended Lindale High School in Lindale, TX and will be graduating from UD in May. The University of Dallas had another one of the team members earn the rookie of the year honor. Jeff Pritchard (Frisco, TX/Frisco High School) is only a sophomore at UD and already earning a prestigious name for himself by averaging 10 points per game. Other persons sharing the award with Pritchard include: Fabian Ferreira, Green Mountain College (14 points per game); Brendan Kordana, Southern Vermont College, (16 points per game).
The All-Independent Men's Basketball teams were selected by the men's basketball coaches from member schools of the Association of Division III Independents.

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Crusader Men's Basketball Program History

Men's Basketball became a varsity sport in 1916 when it was coached by Charles Crowley, the coach for 3 seasons. During the 1991-92 season Head Coach Jake Bethany led the team to the NAIA District 8 Playoffs. The team now competes at the NCAA Division III level as an independent and reached the organizations playoffs during the 2003-04 season under current Head Coach Brian Stanfield. In the last game of the 2006-07 season Stanfield recorded his 100th win at the school. He holds the schools' coaching victory record at 100, 36 in front of coach Bethany.

Joe Packard

D3hoops.com

The Association of Division III Independents

The University of Dallas is a charter member of the Association of Division III Independents. Please click on the heading below to check out all the latest information.