On Saturday, Oct. 26, the Union University Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams had their season debuts in the Fred DeLay Gymnasium as they each played their first game of the season. The Lady Bulldogs played the University of Tennessee Southern and won 119-65. The men’s team won against Cumberland University 82-76.
The Lady Bulldogs started at 4 p.m. and were followed by the men’s game at 6 p.m. The Saturday home games were a part of Union’s Homecoming Week lineup and they served to bring the week to a close.
The men’s team played a competitive game, involving Union and Cumberland fighting for the lead. Union led the game but struggled to keep Cumberland from catching up, as they tied eight times. At halftime Union led with 42 points to Cumberland’s 37. With 17 minutes remaining, Cumberland eventually surpassed Union in points. In the second half, Cumberland scored 36 points while Union only scored 29, but that was still enough for Union to secure their win.
Cumberland received many fouls throughout the game which allowed Union to get in 24 throws. The free throw shots ultimately helped the Bulldogs stay in the lead.
“I am happy about the win but there is a lot of room for improvement,” Parker Applegate, a sophomore sports management and forward position on the team, said.
Applegate explained that the team has a lot to work on, specifically defense and rebounding. He stated that David Niven, the Men’s head coach, saw that the team needed improvement and had the team watch recordings from their game before and after their practice.
“We watched film for four hours on [the game] so we can analyze every play,” Applegate said. “We play a division one team on Monday — Austin Peay — and that’s going to be a really tough game, so we just have to lock in for that.”
The men’s basketball team is continuing to practice hard in preparation for their future games.
Likewise, the women’s basketball team was very successful as they easily stayed ahead of their opponent the entire game.
The team ended the first quarter leading 32-22 and then by halftime they moved up 66-34. Union remained ahead of Tennessee Southern by gaining 101 points in the third quarter and then eventually gained 18 more by the end of the game.
Most of Union’s shots were earned from free throws, three-point shots and field goals. Sean Blackburn, associate head coach of the women’s basketball team, mentioned that the team has practiced hard on improving offensively and defensively.
“All 16 of our girls play extremely hard — a lot of that stuff doesn’t show up in the stat sheet,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn stated that the team was good at defense and assists, including cutting assists and screening assists. He mentioned players Jazalyn Anousinh, a senior communications major, and Shylee Morrison, a senior accounting major, for their high assist games. As well as Nora Saffel, a freshman business marketing major, for setting and rolling on her screens.
“The way we play is random and in order to master random you have to communicate with each other at a high level,” Blackburn said. “Me and Coach [Mark] Campbell studied over the summer in some areas that we could improve on and some different ways to try to help put the girls in better situations and positions to be successful.”
Blackburn believes that the team is talented at what they do which is important to the team’s success, but ultimately the relational aspect of the team is what helps them play well.
“I think relationships obviously for any team are a really big deal, but I think it’s a little bit more magnified in girls’ basketball,” Blackburn said. “So, us staying together as a tight nit group and being a little bit more worried about serving each other as opposed to all the other stuff that doesn’t really matter.”
Blackburn believes that the team has a successful season ahead of them as it is already off to a great start.
The men’s team is going on to play an exhibition pre-conference game on Monday, Nov. 8, against Austin Peay University. Then they play Lane College on Friday, Nov. 8 and Tuskegee University on Saturday, Nov. 9. All of which are away games.
The women’s basketball team is playing three exempt tournament games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 1-3) against Minot State University, Texas A&M University and Grand Valley State University.
