With November 1st being the official start date of NJCAA Basketball action, the Charger Men and Women both got off to a busy first week that culminated in a pair of home wins over the weekend. The Charger Women got a big win on Friday night over Carl Sandburg followed by a loss to Edison State on Saturday while the men wrapped up their first week with a thrilling win over Edison State.
Men's Basketball vs. Edison State
Coming off of a tough, back and forth, 94-91 loss to a very well-regarded Hocking team on Tuesday had Head Coach Jeremy Herring and his staff hard at work with their young team on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday looking to shore up some things defensively as they prepared to take on Edison State. However, it was Edison State who showed up clicking on all cylinders out of the gate as they jumped out to a 30-7 lead on the strength of red-hot 3 point shooting. Coach Herring burned through multiple timeouts and lineup combinations looking slow Edison State down and imploring his group to compete.
As the half wore on, MU Ancilla found their footing and quickly cut in to the Edison State lead. As the two teams reached the halftime break, MU Ancilla had cut the lead in half, trailing only 42-31 at the break. Coach Herring was happy with the resolve shown towards the end of the 1st half. "Edison State shot 10/21 from the 3 point line which is remarkable. I felt like that was a combination of some great shot-making on their part and us doing a poor job of running them off the 3 point line. As we got closer to halftime, our guys. to their credit, adjusted and started contesting the arc."
The second half seemed to be in Edison State's control as they led by 11 points with 4:30 left on the clock. MU Ancilla had other ideas as they mounted a furious rally late to take a one point lead. Edison State ran some great action to get to the free throw line, knocking in both shots to regain the lead 80-79 with just under 5 seconds remaining. Coach Herring called a timeout, setting the stage for Maurice Russell to be the hero. Russell took the inbounds pass on the left side of the floor in front of the benches, drove the length of the court and hit a silky, floating layup as the buzzer sounded. The winning basket led to the entire Charger bench rushing on to the court to celebrate with Russell as the Chargers took the 81-80 win.
The MU Ancilla Chargers were led by Ben Jones who finished with 18 points on 8-13 shooting and Dewayne Robinson who also had 18 points on 7-10 shooting.. Jones added 6 rebounds and 5 assists while Robinson added a team-leading 9 rebounds. Maurice Russell finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Willie Reece and Zach Dutton just missed double figure nights as both finished with 8 points for MU Ancilla who moves to 1-1 on the season.
Coach Herring, who earned his first victory as the head coach, had this to say about the win and his team, "What a fun game! I was really proud of how we hung in there and battled our way back from a tough start. We showed some resilience. I'm happy for our young team who got to experience their first win and we will build on this as we continue to work hard to improve."
The Chargers, 1-1, will return to action next Saturday against the same Edison State team, this time on the road.
Women's Basketball vs. Carl Sandburg College
The MU Ancilla women started their season off on a great not Tuesday, coming home with a 55-54 win on the road. The win came over an NJCAA Division 1 opponent, Lincoln Trail, and came on a Kyra Duncan game winning basket. The women returned to action on Friday evening, hosting Carl Sandburg College from Illinois. For the second time in the week, the Chargers came out with a victory, this time it was an 82-58 win that combined very hot shooting with excellent 2nd half defense. The Chargers jumped out very quickly on offense, scoring 45 points in the first half and added 37 more points in the second half. The Chargers shot 51.7% from the field and an impressive 76.2% from the FT line. It was a stingy half-court defense in the 2nd half that allowed the Chargers to pull away for the 24 point win. Carl Sandburg was limited to just 23 points in the second half and shot only 34% on the night.
Coach Gould was really impressed with his team's performance in the home opener. "I was very happy with how we responded in the second half defensively. I thought we let down in the 2nd quarter and gave up 19 points. The players were not happy with that quarter either and to their credit, came out determined to get back to how we want to play. If we can keep teams in that 50-60 point range, we will have opportunties to win on most nights."
Kyra Duncan and Jayci Allen led MU Ancilla as each compiled 14 points and 9 rebounds on the night. Alexis German joined them in double figures with 11 points. Micah Grady added 9 points while Izzy Johnson, Nicole Swain, and Ellie Fausnaugh each contributed 8 points in the win.
Women's Basketball vs. Edison State
Facing a quick turnaround of about 15 hours between a Friday night win and an 11:30 AM tip-off, the Chargers were able to get off to a solid start but eventually, a 19-0 run by Edison State that spanned mid way through the 2nd quarter and lasted well in to the 3rd quarter was too much to overcome. Edison State used a very well-balanced offensive attack, strong offensive rebounding, and tough defense to walk away with a 72-59 road win. Ella Hoehne was especially effective for Edison State as she finished the game with 13 points and an astounding 19 rebounds.
For the 3rd night in a row, Kyra Duncan led the Charger scoring as she netted 23 points. Jayci Allen just missed a double/double with 9 points and 13 rebounds. Audrey Schmidt provided a huge spark off the bench, adding 7 points and 4 rebounds, all of which came in the second half.
Coach Gould was happy with his team's first week overall but definitely saw some areas to work on following Saturday's loss. "We had talked in pre-game about how effective Ella Hoehne was and how we needed to key in on her but we did not do a good job of getting that done. To her credit, she owned the paint on both ends of the floor." Gould continued, "It is not easy to win when you shoot 31% from the floor but we still got ourselves in to the 50's. Giving up 73 points is not a recipe for us to have team success. I am thrilled to be sitting at 2-1 after a long first week. It is a credit to our players for the work they have been putting in and the toughness it takes to play 3 games in 5 days."
