Early in the season for the men’s basketball team, two freshmen are leading the charge for the Lions. John Ryan and Austin Slawter are two of the team’s highest

scorers, averaging 12 and 11 points per game.

The team also features three transfers. Juniors Kenny Bey-Brown and Nick Brown transferred from the Community College of Philadelphia, while sophomore Joseph Burnett looks to build on a strong season at Johnson College, where he averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds per game.

The team is 2-2 and has won two straight after dropping its first two games. After failing to score 60 points in its first two games, an offensive explosion is responsible for the winning streak, as the team has scored 73 and 84 points in its two victories.

Head coach Jon Tanous is in his second year at the helm and is looking to take the next step in his rebuild of the program that started with a 6-19 season last year; but this year’s team features 12 new players.

The team will look to build on its early win streak and prove the preseason ranks wrong, in which it was projected to finish ninth out of 14 teams by the NEAC coaches.

The women’s basketball team is led by two underclassmen as well, as freshman Shaderra Jenkins and sophomore Shayna Rodriguez have started strong this season.

Jenkins leads the team in scoring, averaging 18 points and nine rebounds per game and has been its most consistent scorer, with double-digit points in each game this season. Rodriguez, who was the 2015-16 NEAC Rookie of the Year, has picked up where she left off last year, averaging 16 points and seven rebounds per game.

The team is led by first-year head coach Shayla Johnson. Johnson was a four-year starter at the University of Rhode Island, making the Atlantic 10 all-defensive team her junior and senior seasons and has spent the last two years as an assistant coach at Arcadia University.

The Lions are 3-1 and have won their last three after dropping the season opener at Centenary College. The offense has gotten on track after struggling in the first game, unleashing on Wilson College for 95 points. Jenkins led all scorers with 29 points and Rodriguez chipped in with 23 of her own.

The Lions will look to build on their strong season last year, finishing with a 17-8 record. The NEAC coaches preseason poll had them picked to finish 10^th, but a team that has reached the NEAC tournament the last two seasons has something else in mind.