THOMASVILLE, Ga. – While Night Hawk nation goes Black Friday shopping and feasting on Thanksgiving leftovers, the Thomas University Men's basketball team will be shopping for as many as three wins this weekend in the second annual Faulkner Battle at the Beach classic in Montgomery, Ala.
 
TU (2-4, 2-1 TSC) comes off a pair of conference wins, including a recent 84-80 thriller over Coastal Georgia.  Junior Guard Trint Bryant comes off a weekend where the Lincoln HS product shot 55% or better in the last two games.  As a result, Bryant heads into Montgomery with TSC's fourth-best shooting percentage (.569) on the season.  One Night Hawk to watch is Junior Forward Shamar Brown; the transfer from Itawamba College comes off back-to-back double-digit scoring performances and has shot over 44% in four of his first six games at Thomas.
 
The Night Hawks will start the weekend against the host, RV Faulkner (3-0).  Before their last game Saturday, FU went a month without hitting the court due to cancelled games from COVID.  Now, coming off a decisive 107-41 win over Carver College, the Eagles are ready to continue taking the 2020-21 season by storm.  Trace Hill leads the team in scoring, averaging 15.67 Points a Game, converting 63% of shots.  Both Garrett Sanderson and Brandon Reeves are deadly at the charity stripe, shooting just under 89% apiece.  Faulkner is the fifth opponent in this early season the Hunter Green & White will face that averages over 85 points a game, part of which is due to the Eagles' shooting from the field (.477).  But perhaps the challenge for TU will be Faulkner's vaunted defense; FU's 15.9% 3-Pt. Field Goal Defense is a second-best in NAIA, while its 37.8% Field Goal Percentage Defense ranks 18th in the nation.
 
Day 2 features William Carey University (1-2).  Like Faulkner, the Crusaders also come off a Carver College victory, as recent as Monday.  WCU is lead by Emile Kazeneza, who average 12.3 Points a Game and nine boards.  William Carey's offensive specialty is Offensive Rebounds; the team averages 15 O-Boards a Game, a 14th-best in NAIA. Also like Faulkner, the Crusaders' specialty is defense, as the team ranks 16th in NAIA in Field Goal Percentage Defense (.375), 22nd in 3-Pt Field Goal Percentage Defense (.269), and 24th in Points Allowed per Game (68).
 
Thomas will close out its Battle at the Beach slate with its first-ever meeting against #13 LSU-Alexandria (2-2).  The Generals will be yet another high-scoring juggernaut the Night Hawks face, averaging 94.3 Points a Game (ranked 18th in NAIA).  LSUA's offense can be partially accredited to Jordan Adebutu, who leads the team in scoring (24.5 Pts./GM), a 20th-best average in the nation.  The key to Adebutu's scoring success? Long-range success; Adebutu averages five Made-3 Ptrs a Game (third-best in NAIA), shooting 55.6% from outside the arch.  The Night Hawks will also need to keep a close eye on Brandon Ellis, the play-making maestro for the Generals.  Ellis averages eight assists a game, a third-best in the nation.
 
Complete coverage for each respective game can be found by following the links below:

Thomas vs. RV Faulkner (Friday 11/27 @ 8PM)
Live Stats             Live Video
 
Thomas vs. William Carey (Saturday 11/28 @ 3PM)
Live Stats             Live Video
 
Thomas vs. #13 LSU-Alexandria (Sunday 11/29 @ 1PM)
Live Stats             Live Video
 
For up-to-date information on this game and other TU Athletics, visit http://www.TUNightHawks.com. Stay up-to-date with news, scores, photos, game summaries, play-by-play, and feature stories of your TU men's basketball team by following them via Twitter at @NightHawksMBKB.