Online Photo
The Oklahoma Christian University men’s basketball team is the youngest Dan Hays has ever had— entirely freshman and sophomores with the exception of three seniors.
Because of their youth and inexperience they were picked to finish 10th out of 11 in the Heartland conference season poll.
Sophomore center John Moon is the only returning starter from a team that finished 9th a season ago. The team has eight new players, seven of them freshmen, who will try to fill the void left by last years departed players.
Moon said he may need to improve his entire game to be more valuable to the team.
“I need to be better than I was last year and play a bigger role both on offense and defense,” Moon said.
The Eagles took the court for the first time this season on Oct. 30, in an exhibition game against Mid America Christian University.
The game was knotted up at 35 at the half, but the Eagles quickly fell behind in the second half and couldn’t catch up, losing 73-67.
Oklahoma Christian turned the ball over 20 times and was out-rebounded by smaller Mid-America Christian team 43-39.
Sophomore guard Luis Lopez said the Eagles didn’t play their own game.
“I think we tried to play at the pace Mid-America forced upon us rather than setting our own tempo,” Lopez said. “Mid-America sped us up and we had a lot of careless turnovers in the first half. We settled down and handled the pressure a lot better in the second half. I believe if we have a better balance of attacking more aggressively and slowing the tempo to where we want it we can cut down on a lot of those careless turnovers.”
The team only shot 63.3 percent from the free-throw line. While Eric Randall shot a perfect 8-for-8, the rest of the team made 11-for-26. Oklahoma Christian shot 23.5 percent from behind the arc while the Evangels shot 35.7 percent.
Moon led the team in scoring with 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting. He also brought in eight rebounds. Randall added 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
Jordan Box was the only other player to reach double figures with 12 points. Cameron Peters added 8 on 3-of-4 shooting.
Lopez said the young team needs to improve on chemistry to compete.
“I believe we need to work on playing as a collective unit,” Lopez said. “If we are going to compete in this highly competitive Heartland Conference than we will need to play as a team and buy in to what the coaches are saying. If we will be a successful team than we will need production from many guys.”
According to Moon, the team is still developing.
“We are still getting used to playing with each other and learning the plays that Coach Hays gives us,” Moon said. “I believe that the longer that we practice and play together we will continually get better throughout the season.”
The Eagles open the regular season at home against Dallas Christian University on Nov. 15.
0
0
Be First to Comment