A little up, a little down. Perhaps a good way to describe the Elon University men's basketball team.
The Phoenix entered its Saturday matinee matchup with Princeton University on a two-game winning streak, but was unable to close out its non-conference slate on a good note by falling 74-64.
“It hurts, because we felt like were very prepared for them and we came out and played tentative the first half,” junior guard Jack Isenbarger said. “So we dug ourselves a hole and we just never really got out of it.”
After the loss, junior forward Lucas Troutman said he's focused on positive signs he’s seen from his team during non-conference play that he hopes the Phoenix can carry over into Southern Conference play.
“We’ve been doing better rebounding this year, “ Troutman said. “We’ve been out-rebounding teams, or several teams at least, and that’s one big thing we need to take with us into conference. Aggression is (another) thing we need to take into conference. We’ve had it for several games, we just didn’t have it in (other games).”
Isenbarger echoes Troutman’s optimism, but said the focus is lacking.
“I think our confidence is fine, it’s where it needs to be,” he said. “But our focus isn’t always there, and that’s part of leadership, guys like Lucas and I making sure guys are locked in preparing for each game.”
He also pointed to his team’s improved shooting percentage against Princeton as a positive the Phoenix can build on.
“We’ll take any positive we can from this game, if shooting percentage is one of those things, than that’s great,” Isenbarger said. “But I think the staple of our team is our defense, and if we don’t get it done defensively, than offense doesn’t really matter. So I think we need to get stops and play full-heartedly on defense.”
The Phoenix must rebound quickly, as it opens conference play at 4:30 p.m. today at Appalachian State University.
“We’ll get back to practice and now shift our focus towards conference play, which is obviously the most important part of the season,” Isenbarger said. “That’s the great thing about this game. If you have a bad loss like (Princeton) then you can jump back and a week later you get another opportunity to go out there and fight and improve our play.”
Elon opened the season with mid-major power and currently No. 14-ranked Butler University, and also played games on the road against the University of South Carolina and top-ranked Duke University.
Those three games provided head coach Matt Matheny’s players with invaluable experience moving forward as they enter the meat of their schedule.
“We’ve had some experiences that have tested us, and I like the way we’ve responded to every test, “ Matheny said. “I think our players realize more now then before just how good Butler is and what makes them good, and they saw it first hand, to star our year off. We grew from that experience.
“I thought our performance at South Carolina has been our best overall performance, as a team. We’ve gotten better since then, but just in terms of each player competing, that was our best overall performance.”
The Duke game was especially important, according to Matheny.
“Duke challenges you, they’re the number one team in the country, they challenge you on every possession, for forty minutes,” he said. “We seek those kind of experiences, we want to win as many games as we can, but we also know the most important thing is that, to make the NCAA tournament, you have to be really, really good in March.”
To make a run in March, Troutman pointed to one area that needed to be more consistent.
“We definitely need to become more consistent rebounding,” Troutman said. “That’s going to be a big part of consistency and then we’ve got to be aggressive every game. That’s who we are and that’s part of what defines us as a team.”
Isenbarger said his team has the heart to become more consistent, but, like Troutman, said aggressiveness and belief is key.
“We want to be consistent, in the way we play, in the way we trust our system,” Isenbarger said. “Part of that is a belief. A belief in each other and belief in what we do. I feel like the belief is there, we’ve just got to play a little better and be a little more locked in when it comes to game time.”