For the fourth time this season the men’s basketball team hit at least 15 3-pointers in one game as it rolled to an 84-59 victory over Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) on Saturday, Jan. 30. The win was the Bisons’ fifth straight, and eighth win in its last nine games.
Head coach Jeff Morgan said shooting the ball well beneficial, but he noted that his team’s success starts on defense.
“I think a lot of it has to do with what we’re doing on the defensive end,” Morgan said. “As of right now we’re first in the league in field goal percentage defense, points allowed per game and defense against the 3-point shot.”
The Bisons have held opponents to just 28 percent shooting outside the arc and 41 percent from the field this season. Offensively, the team has shot more than 43 percent from the 3-point line since losing senior forward Andraz Kavas to a knee injury in early December.
“It’s definitely helped that we’ve shot the ball as well as we have since (Kavas) has been out,” senior guard Blake McNair said. “With him it was so easy to just give him the ball and get out of the way, so when (the injury) happened we knew everybody was going to have to step up and play our part, and we’ve done that so far.”
According to Morgan, the team’s defensive improvement has allowed for more transition offensively, especially freeing up sophomore guard Reggie Anthony and senior guards Jacob Gibson and McNair.
“Because we’re making it hard on opposing teams to get good shots, that’s enabled us to get some transition going and get in a flow offensively,” Morgan said. “It’s allowed us to get Reggie (Anthony) going north and south attacking the basket and opened up our shooters on the outside.”
The Bisons’ offense struggled in its lone Great American Conference loss, a 62-58 defeat at the hands of Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) on Jan. 16. A chance for redemption will come for Harding at the end of what Morgan said will be a difficult four-game road trip, which starts on Thursday, Feb. 4, against Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma.
According to McNair, the team’s chemistry will play a part in finding success on the road.
“One of the biggest strengths of this team is how close we are,” McNair said. “As long as we keep hitting shots, playing hard and playing together, I think we’ll be alright.”
