In the 2014-15 season, the men’s basketball team had two Great American Conference (GAC) wins away from home. This year, they have five before February.
The Bisons have been on a tear in the last few weeks, racking up three straight wins and winning six of their last seven games. Their latest victory, an 82-67 win over Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, Arkansas, gave them their fifth GAC road win of the year in six road games, a new team record since Harding joined the conference in 2012.
Head coach Jeff Morgan, in his postgame interview with Harding Sports Information, said he was excited for his team.
“I’m just really proud of our guys,” Morgan said. “They just kept battling the entire game and showed a lot of composure, a lot of guts and I’m just really proud and excited for them.”
One of the biggest questions heading into the spring semester for the Bisons was how they would respond after losing senior forward and preseason All-American Andras Kavas to an ACL tear on Dec. 7, against Texas A&M University-Commerce. The team responded with a 6-2 record since Kavas went down and a current first-place tie with Ouachita Baptist University atop the GAC standings.
Senior guard Jacob Gibson said that when they lost Kavas, everyone knew they would need to step up.
“You can’t replace a player of AK’s (Kavas) skill and size,” Gibson said. “But we’re a deep team, we believe in each other and know that no one person makes the team. So when guys were asked to step in and play bigger roles, they did it in an awesome way. It motivated us because we knew people would count us out with the loss of our leading scorer, but we made some adjustments and have shown we can still compete in the conference.”
Gibson, the GAC player of the week for week nine of the season, has led the Bisons in scoring since Kavas’ injury, averaging 14.1 points per game, but he is not without help offensively. Senior guard Blake McNair, junior guard Will Francis and junior forward Stefan Andelkovic all average more than 10 points per game and are shooting over 40 percent from the 3-point line to help lead the Bisons’ versatile attack.
“We have a saying we use a lot before each game and that’s, ‘everyone bring something,'” Gibson said. “So no matter your role, big or small, we want to be completely bought in and doing whatever the team needs to be successful and win a ball game.”
The Bisons’ next game is tomorrow, Jan. 30 at 3 p.m. against Southwestern Oklahoma State University in the Rhodes-Reaves Fieldhouse.
