With a strong record so far early in the 2009-2010 season, the Eckerd Tritons Men's Basketball team (5-1) headed to Alabama the weekend of December 4. The Coca-Cola Classic at the University of Montevallo had the Tritons set to play the Montevallo Falcons (6-0) on Friday and the West Alabama Tigers on Saturday (5-2).
Knowing that these two games were going to be tough, Coach
Tom Ryan wanted to emphasize the importance of defense and rebounding. While the Tritons out-rebounded both teams, they found some difficulty in the second half of both games with maintaining their defense.
“Both games our defensive focus and mentality didn't stay for the whole game,” says Ryan. “We had a stretch in the both second halfs where we were giving up easy buckets and it really hurt us in both games. So while our rebounding was okay, our defense was not to the level it should be.”
Shooting 40.4% from the field to the Falcons' 42.3%, the Tritons experienced their first loss of the season to Montevallo 63-56. Giving up 23 rebounds overall certainly didn't help.
“We found every way you could turn the ball over in the first game,” expressed Coach Ryan. “When you look at the shots, if we turned the ball over 23 and they turned it over 15, they got eight more shots than we got right there just on turnovers alone. Well, if we were to shoot eight more times, we shot 40 percent from the field so we would of made probably 3 of them, we would of won the game. It's one of those possession situations, you want to get more possessions in a game and if you turn the ball over you can't.”
However, the Tritons were able to move past their loss on Friday and move towards putting another check in their win column on Saturday against the Tigers. Leading into the half with a 15-point lead, the Tritons seemed to feel pretty comfortable which was apparent in the second half when they let the Tigers come back and go on a 16-6 point run. With a West Alabama three-point shot tying up the game at 75 points and 13 seconds left, the Tritons inbounded the ball and junior Chris Gray dribbled up the court in an attempt to make a last second basket, however he was fouled pretty quickly. Standing at the foul line, Gray knocked down his two free throws giving the Tritons the lead and the win.
Coach Ryan explains that situations like this really prove the importance of getting down the basics, whether it is free throws, turnovers, possession of the ball, knowing when to foul or what the status of the game is.
In regard to free throws, Coach Ryan states that “right now we are just above 70% from the free throw line; I'd like to see us up around 75%. Usually the national ranked teams are in the low 80s as a team to shoot from the foul line. I'd like to see us at 75% before we get to conference play, and that's something we work on every day to do well.”
Conference play starts for the Tritons on Saturday, January 2 at home against Barry University (6-1). However, before conference play, the Tritons have three more Division II match-ups over the holiday break. With plenty of time to rest up after finals week, the Tritons will host Saint Augustine at home on Tuesday, December 15.
The following week the team travels to the Tampa Invitational on Friday, December 22 and Saturday, December 23. There they will take on what looks to be their toughest opponent before conference play Delta State, followed by Concordia.
“They can't really have a mental let down right now. They can have a mental let down on the 24th, then they can rest,” says Coach Ryan in regards to the upcoming weeks of play during the holiday season. “We are going to come back on the morning of the 27th and we will start practice on the 27th. We will have a little scrimmage on the 29th against the visiting Canadian university that usually comes down here over the holiday break, so we can scrimmage them and hopefully get the feel back for competition, and then get ready for the 2nd; Barry is going to be very good this year.”
