By Charlie Lynch
The Colorado College men’s basketball team had two games this past weekend that saw both the opposition and the home-side bring energy and focus. Despite two great efforts by the Tigers to secure wins, the team ended up falling short and losing two games that could have gone either way.
The first game of the weekend on Friday night saw CooXooEii Black ’20 leading the Tigers with a double-double against Schreiner University, who has a similar record to Colorado College. Black broke the 20-point market for the eighth time this season and almost pushed the team past Schreiner, with the Tigers up 56-48 with 12 minutes to go in the game.
However, a nine-minute scoring drought secured 33 points in the remainder of the game for Schreiner, who finally won 81-63 against CC.
“We’re working hard this season. We are playing pretty solid defense, especially this past weekend, but we just allowed the other team to have and convert free opportunities and easy buckets which just started rolling in,” said Nabeel Elabdeia ’20.
“The first game we were playing good defense until the last 10 minutes of the game … We kept on having lapses in defense, giving them open shots, and it builds up a lead. We outplayed them most of the game but then we lost because of the last part of the game.”
In the end, it was a difference of effort and focus throughout the entirety of the game that cost men’s basketball this game on the road.
The second game of the weekend, on Saturday night, brought about a clash of the Tigers against the Trinity University Tigers in Texas. The game was again dominated by Black, who led the team with an outstanding 30-point double-double performance and almost secured an amazing road victory for the CC Tigers.
Despite a back and forth the entire game, with CC dominating the glass and Trinity sinking in threes from behind the arc, CC was able to pull the game within one and had the chance to win on its final possession.
A turnover by the Tigers, however, allowed Trinity to have the ball with four seconds left to go in the game. After two free throws from Trinity, the game finished 85-82.
Elabdeia commented on this second matchup as well. “The second game was tight. We were playing well throughout but the other team was making crazy shots … we brought way more energy to the second game.”
It was a great game that ultimately saw the Tigers lose the second of its games this past weekend.
The next weekend, the Tigers will go to Centenary College for another game on the road.
“One of the big takeaways from the season was learning the lesson of playing the full 40 minutes in a game, which has been a really big problem for us. We will grind in the first 30 minutes of the game and then just fold,” said Sam Kinney ’22. “It’s not like teams are having amazing games, it’s just that during the games we play we lay down. We’re letting them have it. One thing I am happy about is that we keep giving ourselves a chance to win, that’s all you can ask for.”