DELAND, Fla. — Stetson University is learning this season about how success in college basketball during the transfer portal can be a double-edged sword. One season, a program can have a good team, and the next season, those players can be somewhere else. 

Last season, the Stetson men's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time, but the Hatters lost their top five scorers to the transfer portal after that successful run and are 6-14 and 4-3 in the Atlantic Sun Conference this season.

Stetson coach Donnie Jones needed someone who could put the ball in the basket, even if he had to travel across the country to find him. Guard Mekhi Ellison out of Flint, Mich., is helping to fill that need for the Hatters this season.

What You Need To Know

  • Mehki Ellison is leading the Hatters in scoring this season at 15.9 points per game

  • The guard is filling a need for Stetson, who lost its top five scorers from last season to the transfer portal

  • Hatters coach Donnie Jones had to look all the way to Flint, Mich., Ellison's hometown that is known for producing great basketball players 

  • On Thursday night, Ellison hit a game-winning 3-pointer from half-court to give the Hatters a 67-66 victory

Flint is over 1,100 miles away from Stetson's campus in DeLand, but it established a reputation for a certain type of player when Michigan State won a national championship in 2000. That Spartans team was led by three players from that city who became affectionately known as the Flintstones — point guard Mateen Cleaves, forward Morris Peterson and shooting guard Charlie Bell. 

Ellison, who is leading Stetson this season with 15.9 points per game, has that same type of personality. 

“Flint has a lot of grit, and I feel I bring that as a guard," Ellison said. "We’re just a small city that has a lot of good players. I can bring that here to Stetson.”

The road to Stetson wasn’t a straight line for the junior guard. He played two years at Mott Community College, where he averaged 27.5 points his sophomore season for the Bears. 

But playing in the ASUN is a different ballgame, and Ellison admits it took him some time to adjust.

“Bigger players, taller players, more schemes, more plays. I’m just adjusting to it," Ellison said. "I have to get my teammates more involved than I did at Mott, but I’m still playing the same way.”

On Thursday night, he scored 15 points and put the ball in the basket at just the right time, finishing off Stetson's 67-66 victory against Eastern Kentucky with a half-court 3-pointer just before the buzzer that gave the Hatters the victory.