2008 Woodie Awards
Early home battles will test Mules
Brad Seiner
Issue date: 11/17/05 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 1
| |
|
William Penn University will visit the Multi at 7 p.m. Tuesday and the Mules will host the Holiday Inn Express/KOKO-J98.5 Thanksgiving Classic Nov. 25-26. The Mules will battle Haskell Indian Nations University at 7 p.m. Nov. 25, then the Illinois Institute of Technology at 7 p.m. Nov. 26.
To end the long stretch of games, the Mules will host Lincoln University at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30.
The Mules head into the games after defeating the Hannibal-LaGrange Trojans 92-61 Tuesday in the Mules' season opener.
Mules' head coach Kim Anderson said it will be important for the team to get better as the games pick up.
"[Monmouth] will be a very difficult game because Monmouth is a team that is very well coached," Anderson said. "They are really good shooters and we're going to have to be very sound defensively. It's one of those games where I think it's important we got off to a good start."
Sluggish start
The Mules got off to a slow start against Hannibal-LaGrange, and found themselves in an early hole. The Trojans were ahead 18-13 after eight minutes of play.
"We came out here and I'm not sure we were as ready to play as we needed to be," Anderson said. "Once they got a little lead on us, I think we got ready and that's important to be able to react to a little bit of adversity.
"Hannibal-LaGrange is a nice team. Eventually we wore them down, but they've got some nice players."
After the sluggish start, the Mules turned the corner and took command of the game.
Stepping up
Junior forward Darryl Sommerset sparked the comeback and gave the Mules the momentum they needed. Sommerset scored 16 first-half points and ended with a game-high 20.
"I thought he kept us going," Anderson said. "He was making plays. We were having a little problem shooting. We weren't knocking shots down like we normally do.
"He can score in a variety of ways. I thought he keyed it and kind of kept us going. I think we were still trying to find ourselves."
The Mules did find themselves after the early deficit. Sommerset led four Mules who scored in double figures. Michael Hicks had 18, Theo Jones added 13 and Dwight Williams had 12.
Junior guard Wadale Williams said it will be the norm for the Mules to score a lot of points because so many players can put the ball through the net. But he said Mules can get better offensively.
"Anybody on the court can score, but we need to pass the ball more instead of taking just one shot," Wadale Williams said. "We're going to average around 90 to 100 points because we run the floor really well."
The Mules have the ability to run the floor, and Jones said not only will that help the offense, but the defense will benefit as well.
Running
"That's going to be the key to us winning a lot," Jones said. "One through five, everybody can run the floor really well. Coach [Anderson] likes us to use our quickness to attack on offense and especially on defense."
Going into the game, the Mules offense was lead by Corey Brown and Hicks. The two combined for only seven points in the first half. For the Mules to come back and take the lead into halftime, other players needed to step up.
"We feed off Corey and Mike," Jones said. "But when they're down, we're supposed to pick them up. We've got scorers. They don't have to do a lot of scoring, but it helps."
Ten Mules scored in the game, giving the team some added bench power. The Mules will need every player to play well each game in order for Central to defend the conference title.
At times on offense, the Mules were running on all cylinders, but they will be looking for improvement on the defensive end.
"What we need to do now is shore up our defense," Anderson said. "We had some defensive lapses. Hopefully we can get that done in the next few days.
"Our help defense has go to get better. You can't just let guys drive all the way to the basket. We tried to take some charges and that was good. We've got to do a better job of helping each other and getting back to the shooters. But for the first game, it wasn't too bad."