[Editor’s note: The men’s basketball team faced a challenge when they travelled to Anderson to take on the Ravens in conference action Wednesday night. An offensive explosion in the second half led the men over Anderson in dramatic fashion.]
Road wins are so sweet. Home wins are fun, but road wins, especially over good teams, are so very satisfying and rewarding. Winning on the road shows toughness and resiliency. There are no gifts on the road, nor do you usually catch people flat or disinterested. Our win last night at Anderson was especially rewarding since we had to battle back in the second half, overcome very severe foul trouble and really show poise and toughness in winning an overtime game.
We played decently in the first half, particularly at the defensive end. However, our turnovers and poor shooting contributed to transition baskets by Anderson and put us in a bit of a hole. We started the second half the same but then settled down. We stopped turning the ball over, got some transition of our own, and ended up shooting almost 70% in the second half (plus 3-6 from the floor and 8-10 from the line in overtime) due to better movement, taking care of the ball and not settling for O.K. shots when we were capable of getting great shots. We stayed pretty solid at the defensive end, with the exception of fouling a little too much, and were able to win in overtime.
Something very pleasing was that we were able to win in overtime with our two leading scorers, Blake Knotts and Lorenzo Rice, and key guard Tre’ Hall, sitting on the bench after fouling out. Guys like Jason Haslag, Steve Ricks and Derek Simon were able to give us great minutes late in regulation and in overtime. Dan Lowers defended wonderfully and gave us some offense, including making his free throws, and Jeff McCartney played a great floor game and provided big baskets late in the game when we needed them. A lot of guys contributed to a great road win. Hopefully, we can have a big crowd Saturday for our Transy doubleheader (1p.m. women, 3p.m. men) and to honor our only senior, Lorenzo Rice, on “senior night” and help us continue this positive momentum.