With its next four games on the road, the Elon men’s basketball team needed a strong showing against the UNC Wilmington Seahawks on Sunday night in Alumni Gym.
What it got was an 86-56 loss, dropping the Phoenix to 2-5 in the young season.
What may be more troubling for the Phoenix is that the schedule only gets tougher from this point.
Following road games against Samford University and UT Chattanooga, the Phoenix will take on Wake Forest University and North Carolina State University in the next few weeks.
“The opportunity for us to play teams like Wake Forest and N.C. State can only help prepare our team for January and February in the Southern Conference,” head coach Matt Matheny said earlier this year.
Last year, in its first SoCon season, the Bulldogs beat the Phoenix twice en route to a 16-16 record, with a 9-11 mark in SoCon play.
Against the Mocs in the 2008-09 season, the Phoenix split the regular season series 1-1. The teams met again in the second round of the conference tournament with the Mocs winning that contest 79-78 and eventually taking the tournament.
These will be the first SoCon tests for the Phoenix, which went 7-13 in SoCon play last season.
So far the Phoenix has struggled to find any offensive consistency, shooting 41 percent from the field and committing more turnovers, 98, than assists, 94.
The defense has also struggled as opponents have shot 48 percent from the field.
During the first half on Sunday’s game, the Seahawks had the momentum as they were outscored 40-18.
“In the first half we allowed one mistake to become two mistakes and it snowballed on us,” Matheny said.
With five losses, by an average of 19 points per loss, Matheny would like to be able to say more than he’s proud his team battled for 40 minutes.
“We’re getting better at playing hard the whole game, despite the score,” Matheny said. “I want to be in a different situation with the score, so we can continue to play hard.”
Even with a 30-point loss, the Phoenix grabbed 21 offensive rebounds, resulting in 17 second-chance points.
Individually, sophomore guard Terrance Birdette had 13 points and five rebounds Sunday. A combined 24 points in his last two games tops his career total of 22 points coming into this season.
“The more (Birdette) realizes how good he can be, the better he plays,” Matheny said. “He’s a gifted basketball player who can score in a variety of ways.”
Birdette is averaging seven points so far this season, but has made 11 of 17 attempted 3-pointers. He has also recorded 20 rebounds and nine assists for the Phoenix.
Senior forward Adam Constantine added 12 points, along with six rebounds, to provide the Phoenix with an inside scoring presence Sunday.
For the Phoenix to accomplish its seasonal goals of getting better every day, having fun and playing to win, Matheny said he thinks his players and coaching staff must stay within the system.
“We just need to stay the course,” Matheny said. “Because, believe it or not, even in a 30-point loss, I see things in the game that we’re working on.”
Matheny said after the game, in his usual meeting with his coaching staff, he and his assistants agreed no major changes need to be made.
The Phoenix play at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Samford University.
Conor O'Neill
Now, what can you do to make this fairly long online piece easier for web users to follow? (Subheads, bold type, ideas organized into chunks or bulleted points.)
I like the links.
What do make of Elon’s horrid shooting at Samford and then the hot day at Chattanooga? Samford runs the Princeton offense, with lots of patient movement and then sudden back cuts. They like to hold the ball to tire out the defense. Hard to catch a team with a good lead running that offense. They take your legs away.
But then, as the big Samford loss to UNC-G reminds us, the Princeton offense is not very good when a team drops behind. Hard to score in a hurry. Hard to switch the momentum, and we’ve seen UNC-G before when they get hot shooting. So what made Samford good against us didn’t work against UNC-G.
I hope Elon has a few tricks for the Spartans.