Men’s basketball looking to improve down the stretch

By Faith Pitsikoulis
January 22, 2020

The men’s basketball team is currently in the thick of their season and looking to get back on track and finish strong. 

The Cavaliers started the season with two wins at the Wells College Finger Lakes Classic in Aurora, N.Y.  They earned wins against Keuka College and Wells College, hanging on in tight contests. Currently, the team carries a 3-13 record, which makes for a .188 winning percentage.  Last season, the Cavaliers finished their season with a 6-20 record and a .231 winning percentage.

Cavaliers’ home court. Photo by Faith Pitsikoulis.

The team accumulated a couple of losses at the Stockton Tip-off Tournament while facing the University of Scranton and York College, but fought hard until the end, putting up at least 70 points in five of the six games played. Their win against Lancaster Bible College in early December snapped their four-game losing streak after hanging on to a three-point to defeat Lancaster 77-74. 

However, now the Cavaliers are faced with the challenge of an eight-game losing streak as they struggled at the Crowne Plaza Holiday Tournament. The Cavaliers took losses from Virginia Wesleyan and Neumann.

Head coach Tim McDonald, who is in his sixth year as head coach of the Cavs, talked about the team’s struggles and what steps they are taking to play better for the remainder of the season.  He discussed the main reason why his team’s current 3-13 record will not match up with the Cavs 2017-2018 season where they finished 25-4 and won a CSAC title.

“We’re young and inexperienced, and it has shown throughout the year,” McDonald said.  “Our goals at this point are very simple…we need to come and put in the required work at practice each day.  We need to compete at all times, we need to trust in each other at all times and if we can do that we will learn to be successful, which will lay the foundation for the future.”

Coach McDonald went on to say that the mindset of him and his coaching staff has not changed since the beginning of the season.  They still expect their players to show up and work hard to compete and win games.  As for practices at the moment, the team is specifically focusing on improving overall team defense and ball movement on the offensive side of things.

Their most recent games resulted in losses to Gwynedd Mercy and Marywood.  However, the game against Gwynedd Mercy was Cabrini’s #DoBlue night.  The first 75 students received a rally towel to help cheer on the Cavaliers and fire up the crowd.

Cabrini #DoBlue poster. Photo on Cabrini Cavaliers Facebook page.

Sophomore guard Brendon Fisher is very optimistic about the rest of the season for the Cavs.

“What most people don’t understand is that we are a family deeper than basketball.  Yeah, the season isn’t going the way we planned, but we never let that go any further than basketball.  We love to be around each other.  We just have to learn from our mistakes, practice harder and go into every game with an open mind.”

 

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Faith Pitsikoulis

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