ELON – The Elon men's basketball team will try to snap a three-game skid this week with a pair of road tests against Coastal Athletic Association frontrunner UNCW on Thursday night and William & Mary on Saturday afternoon.
The Phoenix (13-12, 5-7 CAA) has dropped three straight league games since Jan. 31 – home losses to Stony Brook and Drexel and a double-overtime setback at Hampton. Tipoff against the Seahawks (20-4, 9-2 CAA) is set for 7 p.m. ET Thursday in Wilmington. Elon then visits the Tribe (15-9, 6-6 CAA) for a 2 p.m. ET start Saturday in Williamsburg, Virginia.
GAME INFO – at UNCW
GAME INFO – at WILLIAM & MARY
INSIDE THE MATCHUPS
vs. UNCW
- Series record: Elon trails, 16-17
- Elon will look for a third consecutive win at UNCW inside Trask Coliseum, where the Seahawks have posted a 59-12 record since the start of the 2021-22 season.
- A buzzer-beating tip-in by Isaac Harrell gave Elon a 73-72 win at UNCW on Feb. 17, 2024, in front of a sellout crowd at Trask. Elon followed with an 80-71 win there on Feb. 15, 2025, with four players scoring in double figures, including 32 points from former Phoenix TK Simpkins and 11 from Harrell.
- Elon and UNCW have met 33 times on the hardwood dating to 1974.
- The Seahawks are in sole possession of first place in the CAA standings at 9-2 and most recently earned a 76-64 win at College of Charleston on Monday. UNCW's two conference losses have both come against William & Mary.
vs. William & Mary
- Series record: Elon trails, 10-22
- The Phoenix and Tribe meet for the second time in three weeks after Elon erased a seven-point halftime deficit to win the first matchup 79-76 at Schar Center on Jan. 29. Ned Hull scored a then-career-high 14 points on four 3-pointers and was one of five Phoenix in double figures.
- William & Mary (83.5 points per game) and Elon (82.0) continue to represent the CAA's top two scoring offenses.
- William & Mary is 1-2 since the loss to Elon on Jan. 29 and will face Northeastern on the road Thursday before shifting focus to Saturday's contest in Williamsburg.
- The Tribe is 9-1 at Kaplan Arena this season, having suffered its lone home loss to Campbell, 104-96, on Jan. 31.
STARTING FIVE
1. Something To Prove
Picked 12th in the CAA preseason coaches' poll, Elon opened league play strong at 4-2 through six games and 5-4 through nine but enters the final stretch needing a push after dropping three straight to sit at 5-7 with six regular-season games remaining. The Phoenix is tied for 10th and part of a tightly packed CAA middle tier, with nine teams separated by just two games in the standings (7-5 through 5-7). Elon looks to regain momentum this week and climb back up the table as it continues its pursuit of a first winning conference record since 2016-17.
2. Business Trips
Elon has been a tough out away from home this season, posting a 5-6 road record, including a 2-3 mark in CAA road games, and opens the week at league-leading UNCW, a team the Phoenix has beaten twice in a row at Trask Coliseum. Elon's CAA road wins came at North Carolina A&T on Jan. 8 and at Hofstra on Jan. 17 – the Pride's first home loss of the season. The Phoenix also earned three nonconference road victories, winning in overtime at UNCG on Nov. 8 and recording decisive wins at Appalachian State on Nov. 24 and Wofford on Dec. 6, with the latter two coming by a combined 56 points. The improvement represents a notable shift for the program. Elon snapped a 24-game nonconference road losing streak earlier last season – a stretch that ran from Dec. 22, 2018, through Nov. 15, 2024 – after not winning more than three road games in any season from 2019-24.
3. Leading Role
At the center of Elon's offense is graduate forward
Chandler Cuthrell, who has emerged as one of the nation's most productive scorers at 20.9 PPG (17th nationally). After arriving at Elon this past offseason with a career scoring average of 6.1 PPG, Cuthrell has broken out with 20-plus points in 16 games, most recently posting a career-high 32 points on 11-of-17 shooting with 10 rebounds in the Phoenix's double-overtime loss at Hampton last Thursday. The 6-foot-8 forward ranks second in the CAA in field-goal percentage at 51.3% and has generated significant offense at the free-throw line, going 144-of-205 (.702). His free throws made and attempted totals rank 13th and third nationally, respectively.
4. Aye, Aye, Isaac
Junior forward
Isaac Harrell enters the week on a surge after pouring in a career-high 25 points with seven rebounds and five 3-pointers in Elon's last outing against Drexel, continuing a strong stretch that also included a career-tying 10 rebounds at Hampton. Harrell has also delivered in big moments against this week's opponents. He provided the decisive play in Elon's 73-72 win at UNCW on Feb. 17, 2024, converting a buzzer-beating tip-in to secure the road win, and followed that with 11 points and three made 3-pointers as one of four double-figure scorers in an 80-71 victory in Wilmington on Feb. 15, 2025. He was similarly impactful against William & Mary earlier this season, scoring 13 points with three 3-pointers in a Jan. 29 win. With Elon heading back on the road to face UNCW and William & Mary this week, Harrell's recent scoring form and proven track record against both opponents loom large.
5. Floor General
Elon has found both stability and poise at the point guard position in graduate
Ja'Juan Carr, a former UNCW Seahawk – he redshirted during his lone season with the program in 2020-21 – who helped UNC Pembroke win 74 games over three seasons (2022-25). Carr leads the CAA and ranks 28th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.11) this season and has been even more efficient in conference play with a 3.6 ratio (61 assists, 17 turnovers). More than a distributor, Carr has scored double figures five times in league action, highlighted by a season-high 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting to help rally Elon past Campbell on Jan. 10.
UP NEXT
Elon plays its penultimate regular-season home game against Triad rival North Carolina A&T next Saturday, Feb. 21. Tipoff at Schar Center is set for 7 p.m. ET with FloCollege streaming the contest.
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