Basketball scrimmage gives Cadets high hopes

With a week to go before the season opener, the men's basketball team is excited and confident that this season will be better than the last.

The Cadets played in a scrimmage last week and even though the final score wasn't official the team showed they can score.

"We just went out there and played and not worrying about the score," said Jaren Jeffcoat, 22, a junior communications major from Dallas, Texas.

At the end of the first quarter the Cadets were winning by just a single point, 38-39.

"A lot of us struggled in the first quarter especially me, we couldn't knock down any shots," said Joshua Cabrera, 19, a sophomore math major from Providence, R.I.

"The team kept fighting and sticking together and doing the little things that helped us win," said Jeffcoat.

In the second quarter it seemed the Cadets were going to fall apart. Within the first five minutes, Lyndon State took the lead hitting three of their first five three point field goals in transition.

"During the game, I though we were doing a pretty good job on defense. After watching the tape and thinking about some of the plays, we didn't do a good job of talking and finding a man in our transition defense," said Cabrera.

"We played horrible transition defense but that is going to be an easy fix. All we have to talk, and sometimes when a team talks and has great communication it make the defense better and doesn't allow the opposing team to score as many open shots," said Israel Guardado, 21, a senior criminal justice major from El Centro, Calif.

The Cadets are smaller this year compared to last, but their inside game focuses on being the more physical team, according to Guardado.

"I know I'm undersized but I like to play physical, I guess you can call me the bruiser of the team because I don't care about scoring, I know my role and that's to get my teammates open, play defense and rebound," said Joseph Figueroa, 19, a sophomore business management and accounting major from St. Johnsbury, Vt.

"This is my first year being around this team opposed to last year and I feel they have good chemistry going on between them," said Joshua Flanders, 20, a junior communications major and assistant coach from Lebanon, N.H.

"There were some good things and bad things we did in the game. During the game you can't really tell how good you're doing, but we watched the tape the next day and we have a lot of things to get better at," said Kevin Bishop, 21, senior criminal justice major from Weymouth, Mass.

"No one cares who scores, they just play unselfishly and together and I think this is going to be a special season," said Flanders.

Last Thursday the Cadets traveled to Castleton for the final pre-season matchup before opening up on Nov. 17 at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

"It's going to be hard for me personally, this being my last year. I'm happy to be playing my last season with this group of guys. If we stay working hard and together, business will be taken care of at Castleton and at UMass-Boston," said Guardado.

"All preseason I couldn't wait to step on the court with this group because I think we are going to do better than last year, we have some new players and the overall attitude of them has been positive," said Bishop.