Men's basketball wins two in a row
Campus Times
December 12, 1997
photo by Summer Herndon
Junior guard Ryan Burchfield (#20) drives past La Sierra's Korey Sykes
(#32) for an easy lay-up while teammate Chris Moreland (#23) and LSU's William
Burns (#21) look on. La Verne beat LSU, 103-77, Monday. Its record now stands
at 2-1.
Ever since it 91-89 heartbreaking loss to Southern California College,
the University of La Verne men's basketball team has shown a great deal
of resilience and heart.
Instead of giving up, the Leopards have gone on to win two crucial confidence-gaining
games for the home crowd at La Verne's SuperTents, against La Sierra, 105-77,
and Pacific Christian College, 78-51.
"I think we are improving every game, because our guys are getting
comfortable with the press, what we want to do offensively and with each
other," said head coach Terry Boesel.
"We need to win our next three games after our loss, before the
break, and we are two-thirds the way there," said senior guard Gabe
Duran.
On the Leopards' schedule were three games this week, a home-and-away
against La Sierra and one against Pacific Christian College. The second
game was won by the same 28-point margin as the first, in what seemed to
be a repeat performance.
In both games, the Leopards came out flat but found the intensity they
needed late in the first half to make the half-time score reflect a possible
blowout win.
"In the beginning, we came out flat, but as the game progressed
we were able to pick-up our intensity," said senior forward/guard Christian
Moreland. "We are still trying to work a lot of the kinks out of our
offense and defensive pressing, but otherwise we played really well."
The Leopards also nearly mirrored their turnovers (23 against La Sierra
and 19 against Pacific Christian), which is an aspect that Boesel that did
not find particularly positive. The only aspect of the game they changed
from the first game against the Golden Eagles was the fouls, which improved
from 26 to 18.
"I wasn't happy with the turnovers and fouling," said Boesel.
"Fouling is a by-product of this press [game plan], but we have to
play better position defense and not reach."
The Leopards fortunately forced nearly as many turnovers as they committed,
due to their zone-press defense. They managed to cause 25 turnovers against
the La Sierra Golden Eagles and 26 against the Pacific Christian Royals.
"I feel like we pressured the team really well by causing turnovers,
which led the other team to fatigue," said junior guard Richard Reed.
"I felt my role was to come in and provide a spark for the team by
picking-up the defensive pressure, and distribute the ball to my teammates."
Among all their downfalls against La Sierra, the Leopards still managed
to shoot 53 percent, while junior guard Ryan Burchfield scored a team high
18 points.
Likewise, against Pacific Christian, the ULV hoopsters had solid performances
from junior guard Ken Cauley (13 points), junior guard Ruben Castellanos
(12 points) and Burchfield (12 points).
In order to play a well rounded game against La Sierra tomorrow at 7:30
p.m., the Leopards will have to come out in the first half and play intense
basketball as well as not turnover the ball and foul.
"We are going to have to come focused on what we need to do, to
get another victory against La Sierra this Saturday," said Cauley.
Boesel said his game plan at the beginning of the game was "conservative,"
which may be a factor in his team coming out flat. In his defense, Boesel
said that the team needs to play conservative (man-to-man) to begin with,
so he can read the opposing team's game plan.
After he figures out which game plan the opponent is playing, he reverts
to a type of "white-press." The "white-press" is a type
of zone-press, which causes the opposing team to fatigue.
"I feel it's real hard to beat a team twice in a week," said
Boesel, whose team travels to Riverside for their second meeting of the
week with La Sierra. "I have guarded optimism about beating a team
twice in a week, and I am hoping our guys are not too confident."
