Williamsburg — Earlier this week, the Cumberland Patriots basketball team improved to 5-0 on the young season with an impressive 77-59 victory over visiting King College.

In fact, one might say the Patriots have simply been ‘Dustin’ off the competition so far in 2009.

That’s ‘Dustin’, as in former Southwestern All-Region and superstar player Dustin Fothergill.

It’s hard to believe, but Fothergill is already a senior at Cumberland, and to say his collegiate basketball career at the NAIA powerhouse has been a tremendous success would be a gross understatement.

You see, it’s at the defensive end of the floor where the former Warrior has made a name for himself as a tenacious defender throughout the course of his career.

Just ask his head coach Don Butcher about ‘Gill’s” prowess as a defender.

“We have three of the best perimeter defenders in America, and ‘Gill’ may be our best defender,” stated the Patriots head coach.

“He’s special, and I’m talking about — he does it because he enjoys it,” Butcher continued. “Everybody talks about how they always want to guard the other team’s best player, but Dustin does it because that’s just what’s inside him. Every opponent we go up against, Dustin draws the assignment of guarding their best player, and he normally shuts them down. He’s just a great player and a great kid to go along with that.”

Offensively, Fothergill does the little things as well to help make the Patriots go.

Take Tuesday’s victory over the King College Tornado, a small Division II school out of Bristol, Tennessee.

Fothergill had a modest stat line — 12 points on the strength of two three-point baskets, one rebound, to go along with four assists.

But, it’s the little things that maybe don’t show up in the stat line that Dustin Fothergill does to help Cumberland do the most important thing of all — and that’s win.

The 6-foot-two inch senior consistently fed the post in the win over the Tornado without turning the ball over, and he made two or three hustle plays during the contest, diving on the floor for loose balls every now and then, helping the Patriots maintain possession of the basketball on each of those occasions.

Those are just a few of the things that Dustin Fothergill brings to the table each night.

Maybe that’s why coach Butcher is so happy to have the senior as his sixth man, giving his team an immediate spark off the bench each time he peels the warm-up.

“Dustin has been a great defender for us ever since his freshman year,” stated Butcher. “Dustin and I had a heart to heart one day a few games into his freshman season, because I didn’t like the way he was approaching some things. I told him that he had to be the best defender that he could be, and he had to go out there and make hustle plays, and I told him that if he would do those things, his future would be bright here.”

“Ever since that day, he’s been as good as we could have asked for,” Butcher said. “He’s a very special young man. What he does in basketball is just a feather in his cap. He’s going to be getting out of here with about a 3.5 GPA, and he’ll be successful. I wish my own kids, and I’m being serious, but I wish my own kids would have turned out like Dustin Fothergill.”

That’s some pretty nice stuff coming from your head coach.

As for the former Southwestern star himself, Tuesday’s 12-point performance against King College in a little over 27 minutes, marked the second time this season that Fothergill had hit for double figures for the Patriots.

The Cumberland senior is averaging 7.6 points per contest, and he came into this season with a grand total of 579 points scored for his career.

Fothergill pointed out that he can’t believe how quickly the time, and his career for that matter, has flown by at Cumberland University.

“It’s really gone by fast, it really has,” stated Fothergill after Tuesday’s win over the Tornado.

“I came in here and didn’t get a lot of playing time as a freshman, but coach Butcher told me that I was going to have to work on my defense if that was going to change,” Fothergill added. “From then on, I’ve really tried to be a contributor for our team on defense. That’s my job — I go out and try to stop the other team’s best player.”

While at Southwestern, Dustin Fothergill was never a kid that got caught up in his own individual accolades or accomplishments.

If the Warriors won a game and he scored a game-high 30 points, Dustin Fothergill was happy.

If he had an off night, by his own high standards, and scored four or five points, as long as Southwestern brought home a ‘W’ at the end of the night, Dustin Fothergill would be wearing that same smile across his face. He was and still is the ultimate team player.

So, in typical Dustin Fothergill style, it wasn’t a shock when, instead of talking about his 12-point performance against King College on Tuesday night, he was more inclined to talk about his own team, and the Patriots fast start out of the gate at 5-0 on the season.

“King is a very tough school, and they brought a pretty good team in here tonight, but we played pretty well and we were able to pick up the win,” said Fothergill.

“I think our team can make a big run in the post season this year,” stated the Patriot senior. “We’ve got a lot of talent on our team, and we’re starting to click. Early in the season, we had some problems defensively, but we really worked on that, and we’re starting to talk to one another out there on the court. I think we’ve got a really good chance to go a long way this year.”

A long way is exactly how far Dustin Fothergill has came in four very short years at Cumberland University.

And, just as he did for Southwestern High School, Fothergill has done the very same thing at Cumberland, and that’s leave his mark on the Patriots program.