Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams took victories against Columbia International University Thursday night. The women won 98-77 and the men finished 92-73, making this the Buff’s first sweep of the conference season.
The women’s team led in the fourth quarter by 22 points. They also had a season-high of 22 assists made in a single game. Sophomore Jaycie Jenkins led the team with 28 total points.
“Going into this game, they were our first conference loss this year so we were already pumped up for it. They have good players on that team and they’re tough,” said Jenkins. “Just going in, we needed to stop their good players and I think we did that and everyone stepped up tonight, we played well as a team and had some big shots.”.
Women’s Basketball Coach, Kylie Greer, discussed some of the main points the team focused on while preparing for the game.
“Taking care of the ball was the main game plan, we didn’t do an outstanding job at that, but thankfully we scored a lot of points,” she said.
“They did have a different starting line up which I was surprised by and they always run a really wide variety of defenses so that’s something you always have to be ready for playing them.“You have to react to their new type of defense or they’ll shift the way they guard things, so they always have surprises on defense that we have to be ready for.”
Men’s Basketball Coach, Bill Robinson also had a plan for the match against CIU.
“The biggest thing we want to do is compete. We were going to challenge our guys to sit down and defend, big or small if we’re in the post we’re going to front everything and try to keep them from catching the ball,” he said. “Those were some of the big things we tried to do, switch up everything and just focus on keeping the man in front of us and contesting every three-point shot. They went 1-3-1 in that half-court trap a little bit, not something we were ready for. It’s not something they do a whole lot, but our guys reacted really well, didn’t turn it over, found ways to make shots and make plays. Our players need to make plays and we made enough plays to win today.”
For the men’s team, senior Trevor Hensley led as the top scorer with 23 total points. The team made 50 points in the paint during the game.
Both teams face Truett McConnell this Saturday, and the women’s team will take on Reinhardt Monday evening while the men’s team plays Kentucky Christian on Wednesday.
Headline Photo by Chase McGlamery; Student Government Association President