Archers have a good start
By: DJ McGuire
Sports Editor
On Thursday Nov. 3, the St. Louis Community College Archers Men’s Basketball team defeated The Lindenwood Belleville JV Lynx 90-70.
The Archers led the game the entire way.
“They were ready to play their first game.
We were ready and excited,” said Head Coach Terry Collins.
The Archers came out of locker room excited and ready to go, said Sean Rigmaiden, number two, a returning sophomore guard.
The Archers started strong with tough defense and the offense matched that, Rigmaiden said.
Rigmaiden led the charge and he finished with a great stat line of 28 points, seven rebounds, one assist and two steals.
“On the defensive end, our first ten minutes we played hard on defense, creating turnovers, that’s what really helped us starting out,” Rigmaiden said.
DaVante Harrell, number 23 and another returning sophomore forward finished with 13 points, two rebounds and three assists.
He attributed the success on defense early to two freshman guards, Todd Simms and Henderson Faulkner.
Harrell said they both came out and played very tight defense.
As the game progressed the Archers maintained the lead, but the defense began to have some minor lapses.
Coach Collins said that these lapses were because the team “tried to protect the lead instead of trying to build the lead.” At the half the Archers were leading by a score of 45-26.
Right before the half ended there was a questionable no-call by the referee, which led to an outpouring of boos by the fans, and nearly had a fan ejected by the referee.
The second half began and the Archers maintained their steady lead.
At the midpoint of the second half the Lynx gained a bit of momentum on offense by hitting a succession of difficult shots and cut the lead to as little as 10 points.
“We played a little sluggish in the second half because we were up by a lot of points”, Rigmaiden said.
The team needed to maintain their aggressive nature and defensive pressure, Coach Collins said.
As the end of the game drew near, the Archers took control once again extending their lead and hitting key free throws to bury Lindenwood Belleville’s chances.
The game ended as the Archers won 90-70.
The end result pleased the players and coaches.
“We started off pretty fast, ran into some mismatches later on, and had to adjust, but overall our first game was good and we got it under our belt,” Harrell said.
However, the team knows they still have plenty of things to work on this season.
“We need to focus on our rebounding, we don’t have a lot of size so our boxing out has to be strong.” Harrell said.
Rigmaiden added that they need to finish strong at the rim, and make more free throws.
The team has many strengths that they believe will lead them to a successful season.
Coach Collins said the team’s ket strengths are its quickness and unselfishness.
Rigmaiden and Harrell believe that the team’s defense is very strong.
“I was very proud of our two returning players [Harrell and Rigmaiden], they definitely led the way for our team” Coach Collins said.
“A win is always a good start to the season” Harrell said.
