Spartan Sports
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THE SPARTANS REFLECT ON LOSS BEFORE GETTING BACK IN ACTION AGAINST SC STATE
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) basketball season is in full throttle headed toward the MEAC Championship. The Spartans Men (15-9, 5-2) are tied for 1st place in the MEAC. On February 5th, 2024 the Spartans fell to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) 69-60, snapping their 5-game win streak before heading into a 2-week break from action for the whole conference.
“You get their attention back.” Head Coach Robert Jones said on the loss against UMES. “You know, I think sometimes when you’re on a good winning streak, you know, and we have the best record, we still do have the best record in conference, were 15-9 or whatever it is, that’s the best overall record in conference. We’re tied for first place still so everything is still going in the right direction. But when you lose a game, especially at that time, and they’re not anymore, because I think Coppin took over but yesterday they were the worst team in the league. It’s a wake up call, you know, and sometimes a wake up call is necessary in this whole journey upon a championship, I always say that, failures not opposite success is part of success, so it’s like we failed last night, But will that be part of our success going forward? Hopefully, it will be so you know, that lost might be, I might be calling Coach Crafton and later on in the year and say thank you for that loss, you know, so I’m not gonna say thank you today, but I might say thank you down the road.”
The Spartans are in great shape heading into the last 7 games of conference play. They have thrived offensively and defensively in conference play.
Tyrel Bladen has come alive in conference play for the Spartans. He is averaging 11.3 points, and 4.8 rebounds per game in conference play alone.
Jamarri Thomas has also kept his thriving play going into conference play. He is averaging 15.7 points, and 3.5 assists per game in conference play.
Throughout conference play the Spartans have been able to win very close matchups against very good conference teams. In conference play, the Spartans margin of victory has been 6 points per game, and 2 out of those 6 games the Spartans have entered the last minute of play losing.
“I think it shows that, you know, you can win games.” Coach Jones said. “Close games, because sometimes when you blow out people all year you don’t know how to win a close game. I think that two out of the four games until last night, we were down in the last minute of play. And we were able to come back and win the game and things like that. It’s also gift and a curse. I think that last night I think at no point no one thought we were about lose the game. I think they thought there was gonna pull like another Howard off or pull like another Del State you know, and even though Del State that game was different tough, but we still had to come back in the last minute. So it’s like a gift and a curse that you have the ability to do it, but then people might think that we can do it all the time. And you don’t want to put yourself in that situation to have to try to do that all the time.”
The Spartans will be back in action on Saturday, February 17, 2024, at 4 pm against SC State in Echols Hall.
By: Ahmad Garnett