The 2023–24 Le Moyne Dolphins men's basketball team represents Le Moyne College during the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Dolphins, led by fourth-year head coach Nate Champion, play their home games at Ted Grant Court in DeWitt, New York^{[lower-alpha 1]} as first-year members of the Northeast Conference.

Previous season

The Dolphins finished the 2022–23 season 15–15, 11–9 in NE-10 play to finish in four-way tie for fifth place.^[1] As the no. 6 seed in the NE-10 tournament,^[2] they defeated Saint Michael's in the first round of the conference tournament,^[3] before falling to Bentley in the quarterfinals.^[4] This was Le Moyne's final season as a member of the Northeast-10 Conference, as on May 10, it was announced that they would begin their transition to Division I, joining the Northeast Conference.^[5] They officially joined the conference on July 1.^[6]

Preseason polls

Season notes

The Dolphins' top two scorers from the previous season, Luke Sutherland and Isaiah Salter, returned to the team and were joined by several Division I transfers.^[7]

Darrick Jones Jr. hit a three-pointer from the top of the key early in the Dolphins' season opener at Georgetown for Le Moyne's first points scored as a Division I program on November 7. Ball State transfer Kaiyem Cleary led the Dolphins with 11 points, all in the second half, and seven rebounds. Georgetown used a 9–2 run to take a 12–5 lead early in the game. The Hoyas extended the lead with an 8–0 run that made the score 20–7. After a brief flurry led by Jones, Trent Mosquera and Mike DePersia got the Dolphins within single digits at 28–19, the Hoyas closed the first half with a 19–4 run that gave them a 47–23 halftime lead on their way to a 94–57 victory. Jones and Luke Sutherland each contributed nine points for Le Moyne in the losing cause.^[10][11][12]

The Dolphins took on another Big East opponent, when they visited Vilanova on November 10. Led by Darrick Jones Jr. and Luke Sutherland, Le Moyne got off to a quick start and took an early 8–4 lead. The Wildcats responded with an 8–0 run to surge ahead, 12–8. However, the Dolphins responded with a run of their own led by Kaiyem Cleary, Mike DePersia and Ocypher Owens to take a 20–17 lead. Villanova used a 21–4 run to take control of the game, pushing their lead to 38–24. Le Moyne got no closer than 10 points down the rest of the way, as the Wildcats cruised to an 83–57 victory. Sutherland led the Dolphins with 15 points, and Isaiah Salter added 10. Cleary grabbed six rebounds for Le Moyne, while DePersia contributed six assists.^[12][13][14]

Le Moyne used first-half runs of 16–2 and 20–2 to build a 47–15 lead and never looked back on their way to a 105–46 victory, their first as a Division I program, over Division III SUNY Canton in their home opener on November 13. Five Dolphins had double-figure scoring games led by Kaiyem Cleary with 21 points, Nate McClure with 16, Darrick Jones Jr. with 13 and freshman AJ Dancler with 12. Redshirt freshman Nate Fouts made his collegiate debut and scored 11 points with three assists and two blocked shots. Cleary shot 8-for-10 from the field, while adding seven rebounds and two steals in just 16 minutes. McClure hit six of his seven shots, including 4-for-5 shooting from three-point range. Dancler grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists. The Dolphins shot 32-for-37 on two-point field goals for the game, including 15-for-16 in the first half.^[15][16]

The Dolphins raced out to an early 10–0 lead in the opener of their four-game California road trip at San Diego on November 17. The early run was sparked by five points from Darrick Jones Jr., who finished with 11 points and three rebounds. With Le Moyne leading by eight at 27–19, the Toreros went on a 17–1 run that pushed them into the lead for good. San Diego opened the second-half scoring with a tree-point play to extend their lead to 12 at 46–34, and the Dolphins responded with a 6–0 run, including four points from Ocypher Owens, who finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots. The Toreros reasserted control over the game with a 22–9 run on their way to an 80–71 victory. Mike DePersia had 12 points, six assists and five steals for the Dolphins.^[17][18]

Ocypher Owens was named an NEC Prime Performer for the season's second week. He averaged 15.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.7 blocks and 1.0 steals and shot 54.3% during week 2. Through the season's first two weeks, Le Moyne averaged just 9.2 turnovers per game, ranking first in the NEC and 24th in Division I with a 6.6 turnover margin. The Dolphins topped the NEC with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.74. Graduate student guard Mike DePersia was the catalyst, leading the NEC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.67. DePersia topped the NEC with 4.4 assists per game and had only six turnovers in 129 minutes over the season's first five games.^[19]

Le Moyne recorded its first victory over a Division I opponent as a Division I program, an 80–70 win at Cal State Northridge on November 21, in their opening game of the Golden State Hoops Jam, a multi-team event sponsored by Pacific. Luke Sutherland led the Dolphins with 24 points and five rebounds. Le Moyne started five graduate students for the first time in the program's history, and they responded by sprinting to an 11–4 lead to start the game, getting early scoring from Sutherland, Nate McClure (12 points, four rebounds and three steals for the game) and Isaiah Salter. After Le Moyne fell behind, 15–12, Mike DePersia (eight points, nine assists, four rebounds and three steals for the game) sparked a 19–2 run with a pull-up jump shot. The Matadors could not get closer than three points behind the rest of the way. The Dolphins closed out the game with strong free-throw shooting, finishing the game 31-for-34 from the charity stripe.^[20][21]

Roster

Schedule and results

Source:^[23]

Notes

References