12/01/2010
Jon Moreno
Southern’s four wins over the last two seasons had most people looking past the Owls this season, they were picked to finish 15th in the region.
Fast-forward four games into the season and the same Owls are undefeated at 4-0.
“I don’t think that any of it was expected,” said senior guard Demetrius Jackson. “We knew where we
wanted to go and we all came in working hard throughout preseason to build and get the basketball program back to where it was in the past. I think our start just shows to everyone the commitment to get better.”
Junior forward Kieran Ramsey began the season on the right foot when he scored a game-high 23 points with nine rebounds when the Owls defeated Chestnut Hill to open the 2010 campaign.
Even when it may have seemed the Owls were close to being handed their first loss of the season against Bridgeport on Nov. 14, sophomore forward Trevon Hamlet made a layup in the clutch with 1:22 left to play to hand the team a 59-56 win.
Despite the early success, junior guard Chris Harris said he is not eager to show any specific team what the Owls are capable of.
“I’m not looking forward to any game this year,” he said. “I think teams are looking forward to play us to try and give us our first loss of the season.”
Harris said no player has impressed him this season because he knew the potential his teammates had, but Jackson said there was one player who has stuck out to him.
“Greg Langston surprised me the most for being a freshman,” he said. “He’s really been playing well but I would say our whole team is a surprise because of the chemistry we have built in such a short time.”
The fast start is resulting into a lot of records that have not been touched for a while. The season opening win was the first for the Owls since the 2006-07 season and the team starting 2-0 is the first time it’s happened since the 2001-02 season according to the Southern Athletics website.
The success so far is just the tip of the iceberg said junior forward Kieran Ramsey.
“I feel like the sky is the limit for this team, we just have to take one game at a time, as a team we have no
pressure on us because no one is really expecting anything from us,” he said. “However you can best believe we are going to shock a lot of teams this year.”
Ramsey led the team to its third win of the season on Nov. 17 against LeMoyne. He scored another game-high 21 points accompanied with seven rebounds.
The 4-0 start marks the first time it’s happened since the 1999-2000 season.
The team only seems to be getting stronger as its last win was a dominating 82-66 effort against Pace.
Hamlet scored a game-high 28 points. The team is now 2-0 in conference play.
“This is a different basketball team in past years and we are building a program,” said Ramsey. “We have a lot of talent on the team and its fun to watch, we just want to bring back the winning tradition that Southern Men’s Basketball had years ago. We definitely feel that this team can do that and with that bringing back school spirit to basketball games. I promise fans that this team will not disappoint and will give an all out effort for 40 minutes.”
