Despite their new coaching staff and recruited players, the Andrews University Cardinals men’s basketball team continues to struggle early in their season. The Cardinals were defeated on the road by the Southwestern Michigan College Roadrunners on Nov. 19 with a final score of 68-54. Most of this year’s new additions to the Cardinals came from SMC, a community college less than 20 miles from Andrews, including head coach Jared Rusher, who recruited several players from SMC to join him on the Cardinals. Although the Cardinals have seen some growth and improvement from last season under Rusher and his new assistant coaches, their SMC rivals have gotten the better of them twice while at home this season, the first time being on Nov. 1, the Cardinals' first game of the season.
The Roadrunners got off to a hot start despite running an offensive system that featured very little to no player movement and relied on quick passes to tire Cardinals defenders throughout the game. In this system, the Roadrunners were very efficient from the three-point range, which helped them get a 13-4 lead five minutes before Rusher called the Cardinals’ first timeout.
This proved to be a good decision for the Cardinals, as the team came out of the timeout getting more efficient on offense, forcing the Roadrunners to turn the ball over several times and immediately go on a 9-0 run. A highlight of the defensive effort came from Demarien Nichols (junior), one of Rusher’s SMC recruits, who finished the game with four steals in addition to leading the Cardinals’ scoring with 24 points.
The game remained close during the entirety of the first half, and the Cardinals were able to tie the game, although they never took the lead. Several miscues by Cardinals players and the inability of the Cardinals frontcourt to secure enough defensive rebounds and defend the rim without fouling hindered their success. Rusher and head assistant coach Kelvin Green were actively communicating with the players through the game and during timeouts to make adjustments on both offense and defense, which helped keep the game close. The first half ended with the Roadrunners leading 35-28.
After a brief stoppage when the game ball went flat, the Cardinals were able to progressively cut into the deficit, trimming the lead down to as little as two points during the second half. In addition to Nichols, the Cardinals got offensive contributions from Caleb Braswell (junior), who had 10 points and a steal, and Asher Odiambo (junior), who shot 50% from three-point range.
However, similar to the game ball, the Cardinals started to fall flat on both offense and defense. The Roadrunners were able to get several fast breaks after the Cardinals turned the ball over and were able to utilize the length of some of their taller players to get easy layups and free throws. Rusher and the Cardinals coaching staff tried putting the team in a zone defense to stunt the Roadrunners’ attacking ability. Unfortunately, when the Cardinals rotated poorly in the zone defense, this led to more open three-pointers for the Roadrunners, and when the zone was rotated well, the Roadrunners were able to get offensive rebounds and get the Cardinals’ big men in foul trouble.
With the Roadrunners' lead increasing late in the second half, Rusher tried substituting several players in different lineups to shake things up. This included bringing in Abriel Thuc (senior), who is the tallest member of the team at 6-foot-9, to help the team rebound and protect the rim better when starting center Ian Ochieng (senior) was one foul away from disqualification. Ultimately, all the adjustments were for naught, as the Roadrunners punctuated their 14-point win with two emphatic dunks to end the game. At the time of publication the Cardinals have two wins and four losses for the season.
The Cardinals and their supporters hope to shake off the loss and grow as a team with its next two games against Moody Bible College, one that took place on Nov. 21 and one at home at the Andreasen Center for Wellness on Nov. 23. Cardinals supporters should be optimistic about these next games because the Cardinals beat Moody Bible College twice last year for their only wins and this year’s team has already matched that win total and shown relative improvement from last season on the court.
To learn more about the Andrews University Cardinals men’s basketball team and current information on Andrews University Athletics as a whole, visit the Cardinals’ website and their Instagram page.
NOTE: All of the statistics mentioned in this article, with the exception of the final score, are unofficial and were recorded by the author during the game by hand.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.