MISENHEIMER — Coming off a pair of disappointing 10-win seasons, eighth-year coach Pete Schoch and his Pfeiffer men’s basketball team entered the 2024-25 campaign hoping to rise above the recent past.
The Falcons (5-6, 1-2 USA South) are now three games into USA South Athletic Conference play as they sit in the middle of their conference standings with a dozen matchups left to play.
With a 91-73 home win over NC Wesleyan (7-8, 1-3 USA South), followed by a 98-95 overtime road loss to conference-leading Southern Virginia (13-2, 4-0 USA South) and a 94-93 road loss to Mary Baldwin (9-5, 4-0 USA South), Pfeiffer has shown promise — averaging 93 points against their USA South opponents — even if the wins aren’t always there.
Sitting just one game under .500 with a lot of schedule left to play, it’s not off the table that the Falcons will be able to notch their first winning season since they came away from the 2021-22 campaign with a 12-11 record (9-5 USA South).
Pfeiffer demonstrated a sense of fight in its two recent road matchups against the top two teams in its conference, falling to the SVU Knights and Mary Baldwin Fighting Squirrels by only a combined four points.
Dating back to Dec. 14, the Falcons have now scored a minimum of 91 points in four of their past five contests, highlighting an offensive surge led by senior guard Daymon Beckwith, who is averaging a team-high and career-best 17.7 points in his fourth season in Misenheimer.
The Jacksonville native is coming off a season-high 23-point performance over the weekend.
Elsewhere, forward and former North Stanly star Doug Smith has blossomed in his junior season, essentially averaging a double-double (11 points, 9.8 rebounds) while senior guard Alex Cunningham brings in 12 ppg and junior forward Justin Gaten adds 9.8 ppg.
Pfeiffer’s immediate roadmap for ascension in the USA South plays out throughout the rest of January as the Falcons are scheduled to face four conference opponents, with three of them holding opportunities for victories against squads with four wins or less.
Given the Falcons’ recent resiliency against the top shelf of their conference, upcoming matchups against the bottom half of the USA South could make or break the team’s ability to take a leap forward.
Pfeiffer hosted Methodist (4-9, 0-2 USA South) on Wednesday and will round out the month with a home game versus Greensboro (2-11, 1-1 USA South), road trips to Brevard (7-6, 2-2 USA South) and William Peace (2-12, 0-3 USA South), and then a nonconference home matchup against No. 5 Christopher Newport (14-3).
Pfeiffer now has a 43-46 conference record since reclassifying from NCAA Division II to Division III and beginning USA South play during the 2018-19 season.