By Dillon Flanigan
Sports Editor
Guard Albert Vargas, a junior, attempts to score.
With the end of the season near, the Men’s Basketball team put on a show as they defeated Franklin Pierce University Ravens 107-65.
“We just came out aggressive. We made shots early, when you make shots, obviously teams feed off that,” Head Coach Scott Burrell said. “We played great defense early and we were able to jump on, sustain the lead and we sustained it the whole game.”
The Owls were missing a few guys as guards Isaac Hester, a sophomore and Elijah Wood, a senior, were not available. In their absence, Burrell turned to guards Sean James, a senior and Makai Coleman, a freshman, who made his first career start.
Coleman displayed his growth so far in just one season, adjusting to the college level as he was joined by freshman guard, in Christian McClease who have been a staple in the starting five as of late.
The Owls controlled the game from the tip with no lead changes and even stretching the point differential to 56 midway through the second half.
Out of the gate, James, who was demoted to the bench early in the season, made the start and was 3-3 from three scoring the first nine of 11 points in the first two minutes of the game.
“He shot the ball well last few games, and just got to keep shooting good ones, making good ones, his confidence is building,” Burrell said. “He’s feeling good about himself. You’ve seen the ball go through hoop and hope it continues the rest of the season.”
The scorching hot Owls took a 41-point lead into halftime with no signs of slowing down. As both benches emptied early, the Owls lead stretched with neither team calling a timeout.
“He coaches his team the way he does, I coach mine. We were in a situation where we didn’t need to call timeout, so that’s why I avoided calling timeouts,” Burrell said. “You can only mess things up with the timeout in that situation, so I wasn’t gonna do that.”
For the first time this season, guard Albert Vargas, a junior, was not in the starting lineup but playing 19 minutes off the bench. He scored with 21, with one block, one steal, five assists and six of the 42 rebounds.
“That’s a kind of team that we are right now. It don’t matter who they think is going to score. It can be anybody,” Vargas said. “It can be Sean, it can be Tony, can be Cherif, it can be me. That’s the hard thing about our team. It’s hard to read, but you don’t know who’s going to kill in that game.”
Burrell has noted all season of the young, athletic shooting team on the court and that may come with a hole defensively.
