Saints start off basketball season hot

By Jared Brehm | gargoyle@flagler.edu

The Flagler Men’s Basketball team began the 2014-15 seasons with a 5-0 record and looks to build off last year’s experiences.

The men’s team finished the 2012-14 season with an 11-15 record in which they had a similar start to this year’s team. The Saints opened last year with a 4-1 record in there first 5 games. However they proceeded to maintain an in consistent pattern of winning. One notorious stat that stands out to fans was the difference in home and away records.

The Saints were 10-5 at home last year, yet were an abysmal 1-10 on the road. For the team to move forward from last year they are going to have to change that away record significantly. Another factor is the number of seniors that left last year.

Last year the Saints only lost three starting seniors, which is not a lot considering the fact that most programs lose a hefty amount every year. But the Saints have the makings of a united and well-organized team that has a chance to make a playoff push this year.

“The difference from the seniors this year and last year’s is the seniors this year are more of a tight family,” said senior guard Lydell Manigo. Manigo explained that this year’s team has done more activates on and off the court to come together as one in order to fend off any distracting challenges the season may throw at them.

And others on the team agree with Manigo. “This year’s team has more experience. The majority of this year’s team has been through a year of Peach Belt play and understands what it takes to win games,” said senior forward Dezmond Gibson.

“We feel like more of a family on this team,” said sophomore Kessler Bell.

The signs are showing so far that this team is playing collectively better as a whole. The team had two exhibition games against Division I opponents — the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida — before starting their regular season. Both were losses, but the margins of the losses were relatively low. This should be something worth noting considering last year’s exhibition games were lost by considerably higher scores.

This season, the Saints say they are starting to mature on the court and believe they will build off the experiences they gained to continue their winning ways.