Lancers Basketball Looks For Improvement

BY SCOTT MORRISON

With a senior class that had five healthy returning starters coming into the season, Coach Jim Thorson and the Mount Marty College men’s basketball team had high expectations.

Enduring a difficult schedule and numerous close losses, the Lancers season did not have the season that they had hoped for.

These themes began to emerge immediately as the Lancers travel to play various teams on their nonconference schedule.

The Lancers (8-23, 3-15 GPAC) lost their first two games of the season by one point and continued in the wrong direction losing four of their first five contests.

“In hindsight you can’t help to look back and wonder what these games would have done to our team’s confidence had we won them,” Thorson said.

One of the Lancers brightest spots of the year came against nationally ranked Jamestown University in the home opener at Cimpl Arena. The Lancers won the contest 82-73.

Before beginning GPAC play the Lancers defeated Graceland University 64-59. However, the Lancers struggled inside of their own conference.

This, in part, was due to their schedule. The Lancers traveled to play their first three conference games, all of which resulted in losses.

“When a team is forced to play the competition that we had to on the road, it is difficult to get out to any kind of a good start,” Thorson said.

Their best stretch of the season came during the middle of December where they won three out of four contests.

After this stretch the Lancers continued conference play with losses against Dordt College and Dakota Weslyan University.

The Lancers dropped their first six conference games before they defeated Midland Lutheran University 77-62 on January 9.

They also defeated Concordia University to capture two of their three conference wins.
After this point, the Lancers lost nine out of their last ten games to finish the season.

Following the end of the regular season, the Lancers lost in the first round of the GPAC tournament to Hastings College 84-71.

Overall for the Lancers it was a difficult season in which they struggled to pull out numerous victories towards the end of contests.

The Lancers will say goodbye to five seniors including Pat Anderson, Stan Johnson, Alan Hough, and Nathan Fisher.