By Nick Bond
When a team starts to come together, there are usually a few barely noticeable changes that are typically only uncovered by the most discerning of viewers. Dives for balls lost by teammates, pats on the backs for jobs well done, and perhaps most importantly, a look in the eyes that points to a shared understanding of common goals. These subtle symbols and many more just like them checkered the play of the men’s basketball team in their resounding win over local rival Fordham, 60-40.
Despite a slow start, during which they fell behind by more than one possession several times, through hustle and determination, the Pride were able to find a way not only to win, but also to show their dominance against a rambunctious Rams squad.
Relatively poor shooting and turnovers generated by offensive miscues put the Pride behind early in the contest. Pressure – especially on Captain Charles Jenkins by Fordham’s use of the isolating box-and-one defense strategy – also played a major role in the Pride’s early game difficulties, leading to forced shots and passes that the Rams parlayed into points.
Things began to turn around for the Pride, however, when senior swingman Zygis Sestokas and junior college transfer Cornelius Vines began finding open shots and draining them, highlighted by a buzzer beater by Vines to send the team to the locker room.
“Those were two different halves,” Pecora said after the game, “[Fordham] is young and talented. But we came out in the second half and played our game, and when we do that, we usually win.”
They certainly did play their game, building on Vines’ buzzer beater, with a 23-11 run to start the second stanza. Pecora was not surprised, however, but his team’s and their opponent’s play in the first half.
“You play local games like this, they are hard fought games. Records go out the window when we play these games, we won a very close game against a very good team.”
Sestokas and Vines weren’t the only major contributors to the win, as Greg Washington had a career high in both rebounds and points, while his frontcourt partner, junior college transfer and Hungarian native Miklos Szabo hit two crucial three pointers to put the game out of reach.
“Greg’s been playing better and better, we’ve been seeing Greg do really good things in practice,” said Pecora, “Mike [Szabo]’s, Corn and Tony have been struggling a little bit, which is natural for junior college transfers, but Mike’s a prototypical four man and he’ll just grow and grow.”
The range displayed by Szabo and Washington also looks to play a major role in the team’s offense as the season moves forward. “Our offensive philosophy is about spacing. Mike and Greggy, making those shots in the corner, along with Ziggy (Sestokas) stretching the floor for Charles, it really makes them pick their poison.”
The Rams proved to be inept at picking the correct one, as they allowed four members of the Pride to post point totals in the double digits, including the aforementioned career high of 10 points for Washington.
We weren’t very balanced last year,” responded Pecora to a question about the scoring spread, “We’d just give the ball to Antoine and wait for him to shoot. We became one-dimensional. I want to have balance.” This seems to be the case, as the team now has as many as 6 players who can consistently put upwards of 10 points on any given night, it essentially has just become a question if they can put teams away at the end of games, something that the team clearly focused on during this game.
“Coach talked about smelling blood,” said team captain Charles Jenkins, “We just decided to put them away at that point”. Put them away they did, pulling away by 16 and 17 points before finally ending the game up 20.
With all the progress made so far this season, the Pride hope to continue what is now a 5-game winning streak against Towson this Saturday in Maryland. The game begins at 7 PM and will be broadcast on WRHU.