Men’s basketball opens season with a win

Cayla Bush//Editor in Chief

The men’s basketball team opened the 2016-2017 season with a 76-57 win over Florida Memorial University, on Veteran’s Day.

Though the Panthers maintained the lead for most of the game, at one point having 26 points over the Lions, head coach Anthony Evans was not completely happy with the performance of the team.

“[It was] good to get our first win, but we started off a little shaky; we had a better second-half, especially in the beginning. Good effort all around, and I’m happy with the win,” Evans said at the post-game conference. “We’re trying to improve overall, culture wise, team wise, all that stuff. So, all the little things that we didn’t do – communicating, rebounding, stuff like that – those were the things that wasn’t happening.”

Defensively, the Panthers had one block and six steals on the win, yet earned 13 points on turnovers.

Senior guard Donte McGill was responsible for 25 of the points put up by the Panthers, who, according to Evans, does a lot for the team.

“Obviously he’s our best scorer, and we put him in positions to put the ball in the basket,” said Evans.

McGill, who finished last season fifth in Conference USA in three-point shooting, hit one three pointer, had a 52 percent success rate with field goals and had three turnovers.

“I feel like I played OK, but I feel I could’ve did things better. I feel like I could’ve done more things to help the team,” McGill said. “But overall, I feel like we just got to get better as a team, just got to get ready for practice tomorrow and try to fix everything we did wrong in the game tonight.”

Sophomore guard Kimar Williams, who lead the team in steals and was responsible for 10 of the Panthers’ points, had similar thoughts about the game.

“I feel like we got to get better as a team, but I don’t really focus on myself. I think we did OK, I just think we gotta get better in practice tomorrow,” Williams said.

The Panthers will travel to Deland, Florida, Monday, Nov. 14 to take on the Stetson University Hatters. Following tonight’s performance, McGill feels that with a positive attitude the team will be able to play well.

“I feel like we’re ready. We got practice tomorrow, so we just got to get better and fix everything we did wrong,” McGill said.

Evans wants the team to focus more on improving in rebounds, communication and defense, rather than who the opponent is.

“Like I told them, it’s never about the opponent; it’s about us. Us doing the things that’s going to help us improve everyday as we go through the season, whether we’re on the road whether we’re at home, so that we can be successful,” Evans said.