Rogers Making Big Splash at Essex County College

North Brunswick Native Leads Team in Scoring through First Seven Games

NEWARK, NJ–After completing a very successful four year career at North Brunswick High School, where he finished second on the school’s all time scoring list, Dion Rogers decided to play college hoops at Essex County College. Under the tutelage of former Middlesex County College head coach and Piscataway standout, Corey Lowery, who coached Dion’s older brother, Brandon at MCC, Rogers has excelled.

Last year, Rogers was second on the team in scoring with a 12.6 points per game average. So far, through seven games this season, Rogers leads the team in scoring with 17.9 points per game. Thanks in large part to the combination of Lowery and Rogers, Essex County College has returned to prominence winning the Garden State Athletic Conference’s Division II division each of the past two years. Last year’s squad finished 25-8, and also went on to win the Region 19 Championship, and traveled to Denville, Illinois for the NJCAA National Division II Championship.

So far this season, the Wolverines are 5-2 including a 2-0 mark in conference play, which ties them with Raritan Valley Community College going into a showdown on Tuesday night, December 3rd at RVCC. The game will feature three former standouts from the GMC in Rogers, RVCC’s Marvin Crawford (J.P. Stevens) and RVCC’s Kristian Svendsen (Timothy Christian). Crawford will enter the game averaging 19 points per game after averaging nearly 21 last season for the Lions. RVCC is 5-1 on the year overall.

In 2012-13, Rogers played in 31 of ECC’s 33 games including 28 starts. He shot 46 percent from the floor overall including 31 percent from three point range. He also averaged 2.6 rebounds per game, 2.1 steals per game, and 2.0 assists per game. He also had an assist to turnover ratio of 1.8 last season. So far this season, Rogers has increased his scoring by nearly 50 percent thanks to improvement at the foul line. Last year, the former NBTHS standout only connected on 59 percent of his free throws. So far this season, he has netted 87.5 percent at the line. He has also raised his three point shooting percentage to 32.7 percent.

In addition to the 17.9 points per game, Rogers is also averaging 3.7 rebounds per game, 3.3 assists per game, and 3.1 steals per game, which are at or close to a 50 percent improvement over his freshman year at ECC. Through seven games, ECC is averaging nearly 84 points per game. The two losses suffered by the Wolverines this season were by a combined total of 8 points including a 91-85 loss to ASA on November 2nd, and a 73-71 loss to Erie Community College on November 22nd. Last year, ECC defeated the County College of Morris in the semifinals and Mercer County College in the Championship of the D2 Region 19 tournament at Brookdale.