WARREN, Mich. – After picking up their first two wins of the season last weekend, the No. 11 Macomb Men's Basketball team (2-3) will head to Montcalm Community College for a pair of games over Thanksgiving weekend. The Monarchs open the Montcalm Shootout against Grand Rapids Community College on Saturday (Nov. 29) at 5 p.m. before closing out the weekend against the host Centurions on Sunday at 1 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT: Macomb went 2-1 against ranked opponents last weekend at the SC4 Thumb Coast Tip-Off Classic. The Monarchs defeated No. 22 Bryant and Stratton Wisconsin 69-63 to open the action on Thursday (Nov. 20) before taking down No. 1 Parkland College by a 75-64 on Friday. In Saturday's tournament championship game, the Monarchs lost 70-68 to now No. 10 Monroe Community College. Sophomore guard
Malachi Irving was named MCCAA Eastern Conference Player of the Week after leading Macomb in scoring in two of three games in Port Huron.
SCOUTING GRAND RAPIDS: GRCC is 6-1 overall early this season and boasts one of the highest-scoring offenses in the MCCAA. The Raiders most recently defeated Kirtland Community College 102-101 on Monday night. Their only loss this season was to No. 9 Henry Ford College.
GRCC features a balanced offense with six players averaging double figures in scoring. A player to watch is Zeek Jackson, who leads the team with 17.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. EJ Bowman is another player to watch, registering 17.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per contest. Not to be outdone, Nate Keil is averaging 16.0 points and a team-best 6.4 rebounds per night.
The Raiders are led by head coach Joe Fox.
SCOUTING MONTCALM: The Centurions are 4-2 overall, winning their most recent game by a 76-62 margin over Jackson College. Montcalm's two losses came against Owens Community College and Lake Michigan College.
Much of the Centurion offense is centered around Taylen Carver, as the sophomore averages 18.0 points per game. Mason Dunn is second on the team in scoring with 8.8 points per night, while Trevor Zammaron is right behind at 8.3 points per game. James Browning leads the team on the glass with 10.8 rebounds per game.
Zach Ingles is in his second year in charge of the program after leading the Centurions to a 12-17 record in 2024-25.
A LOOK AT MACOMB: As a team, Macomb is averaging 71.2 points per game while holding their opponents to 68.8 per contest. All three of the Monarchs' losses have come within the final three seconds of the game with two of their losses coming to highly-ranked competition in NJCAA Division I No. 1 Vincennes and NJCAA Division II No. 10 Monroe.
Irving is averaging a team-high 15.8 points per game, while
Caron Williams is right behind at 15.4 points per night.
Lajuan Holloway has tallied 14 points per contest and
Donald Wilburn is recording 10.3 points per game.
Tabari Howard is the leading rebounder with 6.2 per game, doing so from the guard position. Howard also leads the Monarchs with eight steals and 2.8 assists per game.
LIVE COVERAGE: Montcalm will provide live video coverage of both Monarch contests here:
Saturday vs. Grand Rapids |
Sunday vs. Montcalm
UP NEXT: The Monarchs will travel to Lansing Community College, a team receiving votes in the latest NJCAA Division II poll, on Wednesday (Dec. 3). Tip-off for that game is set for 7:30 p.m. following the 5:30 p.m. women's contest.
