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College Spotlight: Archbold's Borcherdt nearing another milestone at Mount Vernon

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By LYNN GROLL

groll@crescent-news.com

MOUNT VERNON -- His tenure on the basketball court has become synonymous with success, whether it's with traditional high school state powerhouse Archbold High School or with Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

Although his basketball playing days are approaching a conclusion, MVNU senior Dan Borcherdt is again nearing another milestone in his illustrious career.

Borcherdt became a prep standout while playing for Doug Krauss' Blue Streaks before ending his career as the program's all-time leading scorer at the time with 1,422 points, while also earning All-Ohio honors. He also helped the Blue Streaks capture two regional championships and a pair of trips to the state Final Four to go along with three NWOAL championships.

In three seasons after transferring from Army, Borcherdt sits just 13 points shy of 1,000 for his career with the Cougars.

Borcherdt was recruited heavily by Mount Vernon mentor Scott Flemming during his days as a Blue Streak, and when Borcherdt was deciding where to transfer to after one season at Army, the current 19-year MVNU coach made Borcherdt well aware that he coveted his services.

"Certainly I let him know of my interest," said Flemming. "I loved him in high school and thought he'd be great here as a student, as a person, and certainly as a player. It worked out where we've had him now for his third year. He's basically been a three-year starter for us and has been a big part of our success. Dan's somebody that can be a big scorer."

A big scorer without a doubt.

Earlier this season on Jan. 29 at Cedarville University, Borcherdt lit up NAIA Division II's then top-ranked team with 33 points, including eight trifectas.

Borcherdt called the evening a major highlight of his collegiate career.

"Honestly, I guess it was just one of those nights," said Borcherdt. "I got some good looks from my teammates. They ran a couple of sets for me and I got couple good looks and it was just one of those nights where the hoop seemed to be bigger than most nights. It was one of those night's I was thankful for. To have a night like that against a team like Cedarville was pretty special."

Borcherdt is the Cougars' third-leading scorer at 10.8 points per game behind backcourt mate Ben Falkenberg (18.8 ppg) and Jadin Thomas (14.6 ppg).

Always known as a sniper from behind the arc, Borcherdt has bagged 41 percent of his shots from distance this season on 69-of-169 shooting, while shooting 92 percent at the freebie line (36-of-39).

"One of the best things I can say about Dan is he's really been a team player," said Flemming. "He came into a program that had a first-year All-American guard in Ben Falkenberg. He's really unselfish and willing to take a second role in regards to scoring to even Ben. In fact, they've become best friends. You can see that on the court, it's meant a lot to their game. Having those two that both shoot it so well and can score has really helped the both of them because you can't just key on one guy.

"He's played both the point guard position and the two-guard," added Flemming. "We've primary played him at the one (point guard) because Ben was our scoring guard. He's done a great job of it, we kind of thought he was a two-guard coming in and he can play that, but he's primarily played our point guard position for three years on two teams that have made it to the national tournament. We're hoping to get back there again this year. He's been a huge part of our program for the last three years and he's having a great senior season."

Mount Vernon is currently in the midst of a season-best six-game winning streak and are ranked No. 17 in the latest NAIA Division II poll.

"There was a point early on where we were playing well and then we kind of had a stretch where we weren't playing so well and now we feel like we've got it turned around and are going in the right direction," said Borcherdt. "After that big win at Cedarville, I feel we're playing better together, finally starting to click and coming together as a team. We're pretty excited about that, especially at this time of the season when everyone is coming together and we're gelling."

The Cougars (18-7, 6-3 American Mideast Conference) are two games back behind Cedarville and Walsh in the AMC standings and have four games left in the regular season before partaking in the AMC Tournament.

MVNU, which opened the season ranked No. 3 in the NAIA Division II preseason poll and as the AMC favorite, played in the National Tournament for the third straight season last year and topped the 20-win plateau for the 11th time in 12 seasons.

"I think it's a realization of coming out every night and realizing every game is important at this point," said Borcherdt of the keys to Mount Vernon's late-season spurt. "There's no nights off, there's no game that's not important and every game matters. It's a chance to get better as a team and there's also league implications and national implications that have a role in each and every game. You come into the realization of that and then also for us seniors, there's limited opportunity for us to play. You just want to make sure you go out every night and give it everything you have because it's winding down here pretty quick."

Once the season ends for the Cougars, Borcherdt will begin his post-basketball career with graduation on May 23 before getting married a week later and then has plans to attend medical school.

"That's a pretty big adjustment I'm going to have to make quick," said Borcherdt. "I'm obviously really excited about that, it's a new phase in my life. I've played basketball for all these years and then just like that it ends. It's going to be hard some days I'm sure, but I'm excited about moving on. I have plans of attending medical school, I'm not sure yet where I'm going to go, but my ultimate goal is to attend medical school."