The calendar has flipped. Things are percolating around the region. Dudes are balling out.
Four New England men's Division 3 schools are ranked in the D3hoops.com Top 25. Defending national champion Trinity continues to lead the country, while No. 13 Tufts, No. 22 Endicott and No. 25 WPI have joined the national conversation. And beyond them, many more teams shined regionally with individual standout performers.
December is the shortest month of the season with the holiday break, but that didn’t mean that stars didn’t shine through the frigid temps.
These 11 players were the best New England had to offer in the year’s last month.
MORE D3 STARS:Â December women's standouts
Ray Cuevas, Bowdoin
Sophomore, 6-3 guard
Hometown: Ipswich, Mass.
Last year’s NESCAC rookie of the year is showing he’s going to be a league-wide problem for years. He’s gone from 15.5 points per game to 22.7, leading the NESCAC this season. Cuevas had a monster month, highlighted by a 39-point performance in a 90-88 loss to Carnegie Mellon. Cuevas hasn’t scored in the single digits since December 2024, a streak of 25 straight games in double figures.
Scott Gyimesi, Tufts
Senior, 6-6 forward
Hometown: Fair Haven, N.J.
If he keeps this up, Gyimesi is going to be an All-American. The senior has been a jack of all trades throughout his career in Medford. He currently leads the Jumbos with 17 points per game and was immense in December. After crossing the 1,000-point mark in November, Gyimesi followed it up with a five-game month where he averaged 17.6 points and 12 rebounds, and he had the game-winning tip-in at the horn to beat a good Clark team on New Year’s Eve.
Jack Margoupis, Salve Regina
 
 
Junior, 6-8 forward
Hometown: Sutton, Mass.
This year is shaping up to be the Seahawks’ best since joining the NEWMAC in 2023, and Margoupis is a big reason why. His 20.7 points per game is leading the league and he went supernova in December. In a 2-1 month, Margoupis averaged 30.3 points and 9.3 boards. In a league dripping in veteran talent, Margoupis has firmly placed himself in the NEWMAC Player of the Year race and has the Seahawks ready to make big moves come conference play.
Xavier Mendez, Rhode Island College
Junior, 6-5 guard
Hometown: Pawtucket, R.I.
Sticking in the Little East, Xavier Mendez was as efficient as could be last month. He led the Anchormen to three conference wins in December and put up two double-doubles, including a mega 24-point, 12-rebound, four-assist game against UMass Dartmouth. And he did that all without playing more than 24 minutes in any of those games. The Anchormen enter 2026 winners of five of their last six and Mendez, top-seven in the LEC in both rebounding & scoring, is a huge reason why.
Finn Miller, Roger Williams
Junior, 6-2 guard
Hometown: Stamford, Conn.
A 4-1 month, two league wins in the CNE, and a big road win at a Salve Regina team that, as of this writing, is in the top-50 in the NPI. It was a good month for Roger Williams and Miller. He averaged 13.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 3.8 assists to close out the year and is currently leading the team in all three categories. His 19-point, 13-rebound, five-assist performance at UNE should have put the league on notice. Everyone’s chasing Endicott in the CNE, but these Hawks have the juice to give them a run.
Marcus Montanigno & Elijah Kinney, Endicott
Montanigno: Grad student, 6-4 forward from Gloucester, Mass.
Kinney: Junior, 6-7 forward from Nashville, Tenn.
They’re back. Again. And with their level of play they’ll probably be back next month too. Kinney continues to put together an All-American resume. In a 4-0 December he averaged 28.8 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 4.8 blocks. As of the end of the year, he’s third in rebounds per game, eighth in blocks per game and tenth in scoring nationally. The fact that he’s doing that while shooting 59.5 percent from the field and 93.2 percent from the foul line (good for ninth nationally) is just absurd. Kinney’s had a double-double in all but one game this season, and in that one he had nine rebounds.
Montanigno spent the month averaging 17.8 points, 7 rebounds and 4.8 assists. He hit his average for assists, which is good for 48th nationally. Despite playing more outside, Montanigno is shooting at a 61.4 percent clip and 40 percent from three. Both he and Kinney are the only Gulls averaging more than 30 minutes per game, but they’ve shown to be more than up to the responsibility.
Joshua Saint John, Framingham State
Junior, 6-5 forward
Hometown: Lynn, Mass.
It’s been a long time coming for the Rams, but Framingham is back in the MASCAC picture for the first time since its last winning season in 2009-2010. Joshua Saint John is a key reason why. Second on the team in scoring (13.8 points), third in the conference in rebounding (9.6 rebounds), and shooting at a 56 percent clip, Saint John does it all. In the Rams’ three games in December, all wins, he had two double-doubles highlighted by 15 points and 10 rebounds against New England College.
Julian Sanchez, Eastern Connecticut State
Junior, 6-4 forward
Hometown: Willimantic, Conn.
The Warriors are the biggest surprise in New England this season. A program that hasn’t won more than 14 games since the 21-22 season is off to a 9-1 start, and Julian Sanchez is a big reason why. The team’s leading scorer and rebounder, Sanchez averaged 19.6 points and 10 boards in a 5-0 December for the Warriors. We’ll see what ECSU is all about real quick this month as they open Little East play with UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth and Keene State.
Thomas Whelan, Southern Maine
Senior, 6-1 guard
Hometown: Bronx, N.Y.
You would think the two scoring performances in the high teens would be good enough, but then you see the game with 29 points. And it still wasn’t Thomas Whelan’s best in December. He saved that for a 34-point, five-board, five-assist game in an 85-82 win over Maine-Farmington. Whelan averaged 24.5 points to pilot the Huskies to a 3-1 month, much needed after a 3-4 November. Most remarkably, Whelan shot 55 percent from the field for the month.
Christian Yeates, Dean
Senior, 5-10 guard
Hometown: Atlanta, Ga.
In a month that ended with four straight wins after a loss at Framingham State, it was Yeates carrying the load for the Bulldogs. He averaged 21.8 points and pulled down seven boards per game for good measure. His last bucket in the win over Maine-Fort Kent before the break put him over 500 total points in his two years in Franklin. With the GNAC looking as wide open as any league in New England, more big games from Yeates should mean bigger-stakes games for the Bulldogs come February.
