A pair of basketball players with connections to Warwick are playing their parts this winter in trying to get their colleges to the unfamiliar heights of the .500 mark after several seasons in the wilderness.

Toll Gate graduate Ethan Dujon has emerged as a steady scoring threat for a Mount Ida squad looking for its first winning season since 2009-10.

The junior guard has started all 13 games thus far for the 7-6 Mustangs and is averaging 12.1 points per game, placing him second on the team.

Dujon has reached double figures in ten games, with his best effort coming in Mount Ida’s season opener against New England College on Nov. 14.

On that occasion, the ex-Titan poured in 18 points to ensure that the Mustangs started the season in style with a 97-86 win over the Pilgrims.

Dujon has also made significant contributions defensively, picking up 60 rebounds thus far, with ten of those coming in last Thursday’s 74-66 upending of Suffolk.

Meanwhile, Wheelock has been dealing with a hardwood dark age of its own, also having last finished above .500 in the 2009-10 campaign.

Despite struggling to a 3-7 start this winter, the Wildcats have put together a potent attack that has kept them in contests, with Hendricken product Derek Fournier in a key starting role for a squad that is averaging 74.3 points per game.

The former Hawk has helped to boost that total by picking up at least 10 points in eight of the team’s games to date, including a season-high total of 17 in Wheelock’s 89-74 win over Dujon’s Mount Ida on Dec. 12.

Additionally, Fournier has continued to show his prowess from 3-point range, shooting 33.7 percent from beyond the arc while his 30 3-pointers thus far puts him on pace to nearly eclipse his career-high of 76 from two winters ago.