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SALT LAKE CITY – The 10th-ranked Westminster College men's basketball team returns to action after 11 days off when they travel to New Orleans, La. for the Big Easy Challenge.  Westminster will face Dillard (La.) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. before facing No. 7 Texas Wesleyan on Thursday at 5 p.m.  Both games will be played at The John A. Alario Sr. Event Center.

Griffin Notebook
The Griffins head to NOLA at 11-3 overall this season and 6-2 in games played away from Salt Lake City.  They are 1-1 in neutral site games this season.  Westminster is coming off a 1-1 showing at the Westminster Holiday Classic on Dec. 16-17.  At that event they defeated Minot State before falling to No. 15 Biola.

Westminster is averaging 76.3 points per game this season to rank sixth in the Frontier Conference and 50th in the NAIA.  The 1,068 total points the team has scored is third-most in the league and 13th nationally.  Westminster is one of the top shooting teams in the country, ranking ninth with a 51% field goal percentage while also shooting 76% at the foul line to rank third.  They lead the Frontier on both of those categories.

On the defensive end, Westminster holds the opposition to 66.6 points per outing while allowing them to shoot 43.3% from the floor.  The Griffins collect 32.3 rebounds per game while also collecting 8.2 steals and 2.6 blocks.  The Griffins post 15.6 assists per outing and rank 12th in the NAIA with a 1.18 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Jake Orchard leads the team in scoring at 15.7 points per night.  He is third in the Frontier with that average and leade the league with his 57.5% field goal percentage.  Ben Walker is sixth in the Frontier in scoring at 13.1 points per game and ranks fourth with a 54.5% field goal percentage.  Walker also collects a team-best 5.0 rebounds per contest.

Jordan Hayter is the top assist man on the team with 43.  He is seventh in the league at 3.07 helpers per night.  Chris Cassity has 38 assists and ranks ninth at 2.7 per game.  Orchard leads the team with 20 steals and Walker's 15 blocks in the high for the Griffins.

Big Easy Challenge Coverage
Both games that Westminster plays will be streamed live on the web thanks to Trip Sports and Stretch Internet.  The games will be available to watch for $8.95 per game.  The link to the video stream will be available at WestminsterGriffins.com.

Series Notes
This will be the first all-time meeting between Westminster and both Dillard and Texas Wesleyan.  The Griffins a re a perfect 8-0 this season against teams they are playing for the first time in the history of the series.  The last such situation was an 87-74 win over Minot State on Dec. 16.

Into the Top 10
After starting the year among the other teams receiving votes, Westminster has now been ranks in the Top 25 for two consecutive polls.  The Griffins moved to No. 10 in the poll that was released on Monday, one spot ahead of the No. 11 they entered at on Dec. 5.

Westminster has now been ranked in the Top 25 of the coaches' poll 86 times since the program was reinstated in 1999.  When playing as a ranked team, Westminster has compiled a 157-65 record.

Massey Ratings
Westminster sits at No. 8 in this week's edition of the Massey Ratings.  The Griffins dropped one spot from last week and carry a rating of 0.727 to rank first among the eight teams in the Frontier Conference.  Westminster has the played the ninth-toughest schedule according to the ratings and are the No. 5-rated defensive team. 

The Massey Ratings are compiled each week with new ranking being released on Sundays.  Kenneth Massey is the creator of the rating formula and all ratings can be found on his web site at www.masseyratings.com.

Shooting the Lights Out
The 2010-11 Griffins are once again one of the top shooting teams in the NAIA.  Through 14 games, Westminster is shooting 51% from the field which leads the Frontier Conference and ranks ninth in the NAIA.  They have shot above 50% from the floor in nine games and five times been above 55%.

Looking deeper into the shooting numbers, the Griffins have a True Shooting Percentage of 60% and an Effective Field Goal Percentage of 55.6%.  Both of those percentages take into count 3-point field goals and free throws.

Specialty Numbers
Westminster is averaging 76.3 points per game and is scoring 35.6 of those points in the paint.  The Griffins have 498 points in the key area this season and have limited the opposition to just 384 points down low.  They are also averaging 18.4 points per contest off of turnover by the opposition.  Westminster opponents are averaging 15.6 turnovers per game.

Offensive Orchard
Orchard is the Griffins top scorer this season at 15.7 points per game.  The junior is third in the Frontier with that average while also ranking first in the league with a 57.5% field gal percentage.  Orchard has reached double figures in 12 of the 14 games and three times gone for at least 24.

He was named the Frontier Player of the Week on Dec. 5 after scoring 28 points in the win at Northern Colorado.  Orchard finished the game 9-of-10 from the field and 6-of-6 from beyond the arc.  He also had two rebounds, three assists, one block and one steal.  The weekly award was the second of his career.

Welcome Back Walker
Walker returns this season after taking a redshirt last season with an injury.  He is currently second in the team in scoring at 13.1 points per game while also grabbing a team-best 70 rebounds.  Walker is shooting 54.5% from the floor and is fourth in the league in that department. The senior forward is third in the Frontier at 1.07 blocks per game and 37th in the NAIA with 15 total blocks.

1,000 Within Reach
Orchard has scored 718 points in his Westminster career and ranks 16th in school history in that department.  Through the first 44 games of his career, the junior is averaging 16.3 points per game.  He needs 254 more points to move into the top-10 in the record books.  He is on pace to finish the year with 985 career points which would place him ninth at Westminster.

To reach the 1,000-point plateau this season, Orchard would need to average 16.6 points per game over the remaining 17 games on the schedule.  Should the Griffins advance reach the finals of the Frontier Conference Tournament that average drops to 14.8 points per game.

With the Game on the Line
The Griffins are one of the nation's top team when it comes to shooting free throws.  Westminster is shooting 76% at the stripe this season and has shot 75% or better on eight occasions.  They rank first in the conference in free throw shooting and third in the NAIA.  Orchard makes 83.6% of his trips to the line to rank third in the league and 25th nationally.

Westminster is even better in clutch situations.  A clutch situation is defined as any free throw with less than 5:00 remaining in the game (plus all of overtime) and a positive or negative differential of 10 points or less.  The Griffins are shooting 79.5% in those situations, making 31-of-39 clutch attempts.  Orchard is a perfect 14-for-14 in clutch situations while AJ Reilly has gone 6-for-6.

Home Advantage
The Griffins have been excellent at home since 1999.  During that time, Westminster has compiled a 135-22 (.860) record in home games and have recorded at least 10 home wins in a season nine times.  They have also posted a 73-10 (.880) mark in Frontier Conference home games.

Westminster has been even better at home since opening the Behnken Field House in 2006.  The Griffins have an all-time record of 72-8 (.900) in their current home and only once have they lost more than one home game in a season.  In conference, the Griffins have a 38-4 (.905) all-time record in “The Nest” while twice going undefeated at home in league action.

Griffins Picked to Finish Fourth in Frontier
According to a poll of the Frontier Conference men's basketball coaches, the Westminster College men's basketball team is picked to finish fourth in the upcoming season.  That would mark the same finish the team had last year.

The Griffins received 33 points in the poll along with one first-place vote.  Last year's conference tournament champion Montana State-Northern was picked to win the 2011-2012 league title.  Regular season champion Carroll College was second followed by Montana Western.  After Westminster the order was Lewis-Clark State, Rocky Mountain College. Montana Tech and the University of Great Falls tied for seventh. MSU-Northern received five first place votes and Carroll received two.