Since the beginning of winter break, both the Harding men’s and women’s basketball teams played and won their first two conference games against Southern Arkansas University and East Central University. Overall the Bisons are currently 7-5, and the Lady Bisons are 9-3.
The men’s team played its first two games in the St. Edward’s Holiday Classic in Austin, Texas, on Dec. 18 and 19. The Bisons lost their first game to Texas A&M-Commerce, with a final score of 67-82, and their second game to St. Edward’s, finishing at 81-99.
Despite this bumpy start, the team stayed in good spirits.
“At the beginning we hit a little bit of a slump,” said junior forward Zach Roddenberry, who consistently led the team in a number of areas throughout the break, including points, assists and rebounds. “We knew that with conference play about to start up we had to get things right and focus on the goal at hand. I think we’ve done a good job of taking each game one at a time and going from there.”
The men’s team did just that as it began to play in the new year, starting with a solid 93-54 victory over Shepherd Tech College on Jan. 3. The team then won its first two conference games against Southern Arkansas and East Central, finishing 90-76 and 78-71, respectively.
“Our team has done a great job of taking the test of conference and realigning our focus to play each game the way we needed to play,” Roddenberry said. “We are not a flashy team who can do all sorts of crazy stuff, but we play hard and everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
The Lady Bisons, meanwhile, have won five of their six games played since the beginning of Christmas break, starting with a 66-56 victory over St. Edward’s University on Dec. 17, which was followed up by a 77-53 win over Saint Mary’s University the next day. The women’s team then traveled to Pensacola, Fla., to compete in the West Florida Classic, where it lost its first game on Dec. 30 to Texas Woman’s University with a final score of 52-62, but won its second game on Dec. 31 against the University of West Florida, 53-46.
With a total of nine freshmen and sophomores on a team of 14, the Lady Bisons have an opportunity for growth.
“The fact that we have a lot of young people on the team sometimes means we could improve on just trusting on the system we have now instead of reverting back to old habits,” senior guard Sierra Rollins said. “Still, we’re coming along pretty good, a lot of these younger players are adjusting well. We have great team chemistry, and we never give up in a game and that will take us a long way.”
The Lady Bisons won their first two conference games, defeating Southern Arkansas University 71-37 on Jan. 7 and East Central Univerisity 65-49 on Jan. 12.
“In the games that we won over break, I think we really played well together,” sophomore guard Kristen Celsor said. “We had a high-intensity level and paid attention to detail, two things that Coach [Tim] Kirby emphasizes to us every day.”
