Men's Basketball

Young Coach, Young Program, Big Talent

Feb 24, 2006

The top seeded Farmingdale State men (12-2) have had a season for the record books, finishing with a regular-season record of 19-5. The Rams won their first regular-season tournament at Roanoke College in December as they defeated Wesleyan (Conn.) and Fisk to take the Rees Jewelers Christmas Classic Championship. They carried their conference win streak to 22-consecutive games - dating from February 14th, 2004 until January 30th, 2006. Senior forward Kenny McMillan (Bronx, NY/All Hallows) became the schools All-Time leading scorer on December 20th and has 1718 points to date. Kenny is now chasing the 1,000-rebound mark with just 13 rebounds to go. The Rams have a National Leader for 3-point field goal percentage in sophomore guard Peter Lipka (Shelton, CT/Shelton), who holds an average of 56.9-percent from behind the arc. Second year head coach Erik Smiles (Bridgeport, '01) holds a career-record of 41-15, winning 75 percent of his games.

The Rams clinched the #1-seed of the tournament for the second year in a row. They cruised past Kings Point 98-72 in the quarterfinal game, before defeating Stevens in the semifinals 85-72. Last season the Rams suffered a heart-breaking loss to Mount Saint Mary in the Finals and they are hoping to reverse that trend against Manhattanville on Saturday night, to win the schools first-ever Skyline Conference Championship and punch their first ticket to the Division III NCAA Tournament.