Photo by: Henoc Kivuye
The men’s basketball team opened its regular season with two double-digit victories over No. 24-ranked York College and rival Southern Nazarene University.
The 2012-2013 NCCAA runner-ups opened this season with a 12-point loss to the Oklahoma Sooners. This battle to the wire with one of last year’s Division I tournament teams could set the tone for another successful year. Junior Willie Harper extended his season total to 57 points after the game against the Sooners and York.
“After our first couple of games and results I feel like we are prepared enough and growing as a team,” senior Kendre Talley said. “I am looking forward to watching our team develop this season.”
The Eagles ended their 2012-2013 season one rebound away from the national championship title, losing 90-87 in overtime to Shorter University.
“One goal is to make it back to nationals and compete,” Talley said. “Our team chemistry is growing the more we play with each other. Our team is very capable of having new players contribute each night.”
One setback into the 2013-2014 season was the injury of senior center Eric Randall, who Head Coach Dan Hays planned on using as a big force along the baseline.
“Losing Eric Randall to a preseason ACL injury kind of changed our way of thinking,” Hays said. “We need to improve our bench. We’re guard-heavy, and that is something we will learn to work with as the season progresses.”
The Eagles have been conditioning since September, but were not able to start official practices until Oct. 15 according to NCCAA rules.
“I like this team,” Hays said. “They work well together, just as any team does at the start of a season. As I look at this team, I think they have good chemistry. They all get along and they work hard.”
The Eagles’ roster features nine guards out of the 14 men. Talley, one of the Eagles’ starting guards, posted 25 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists against York and took home his first Heartland Conference player of the week honor. Will Reinke, an Oklahoma Christian 2013 graduate, was the last Eagle to accept the accolade, being named the Heartland Conference’s offensive player of the week four times in his collegiate career.
“Our three starting guards – Kendre Talley, Nick Tate and Willie Harper – are very talented and they are going to be the strength of our team,” Hays said. “However, we have to become balanced.”
Redshirt freshman Jordan VanDeKopp scored 25 points in the season opener against York this past Saturday, highlighting Talley’s triple-double and Harper’s 33 points against the Panthers.
“VanDeKopp, John Moon, Jordan Rutherford and Josh Faurot are our four big inside players,” Hays said. “Three of those are freshmen, so our baseline play is going to be a work in progress. I think as the year goes on it is going to get better and better to complement our guard-playing.”
According to Hays, he took the practices in advance of the Southern Nazarene game as scouting reports for his team, correcting and adjusting small things that could have been improved in the early games of the season.
“The game against Southern Nazarene is an opportunity for us to take what we learned in the season opener and apply it to this game and the rest of the season,” Hays said.
At the end of the 2012-2013 year, Oklahoma Christian graduated two key players – Reinke and Devan White – who played major roles in the Eagles’ trip to the national championship.
“Talley will continue to have more and more of a big role, but he has been a starter for many years and he has always been our number one option,” Hays said. “Tate and Harper have started minutes in the past, but they have never been starters and there’s a big difference. It looks like without any thought, they will be able to step in and contribute a big part into this team.”
Oklahoma Christian fans like senior Josh Toney during the exhibition match against the University of Oklahoma expected the Eagles to “shock the world” after the Eagles led 41-38 at halftime, and were still proud of the team for only losing by 12 points to the Division I powerhouse.
“We played really well that game, especially in the first half,” Hays said. “In the second half, the Sooners definitely fought back. It was hot in there, Harper was cramping and that is where we needed a strong bench. But our bench is young and that is a tough first experience for our kids.”
One of Oklahoma Christian’s most noticeable figures on the court is freshman John Moon. Moon is a 6-11 center from Crescent, Okla. As a senior, Moon averaged 18.6 points, 13.3 rebounds and 4 blocked shots while shooting 62 percent from the field.
“I have got huge plans for Moon – pardon the pun,” Hays said. “It’s a big difference for him coming from 2A Oklahoma high school basketball and playing in college but he is handling it well. He works hard and as he gets more experience and as his playing time increases, I think the sky’s the limit for him.”
The Eagles play Langston University away on Friday, and return to the Eagles’ Nest to play cross-town rivals University of Central Oklahoma on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
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