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Unfriendly baskets and two defeats were all the South Carolina State men's basketball team faced during their brief road trip.
The 0-2 Bulldogs can only hope to find the opposite at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center for their home opener against Jacksonville University, although new head coach Tim Carter is not just relying on familiar surroundings to pick up his first win.
"A good basketball team is going to play well on the road," Carter said. "I never put a whole lot of stock in just because you play at homeâ¦you're use to the surroundings and you're use to your band and your fans. But good basketball teams play well on the road."
This is the third game in five days for the SCSU men, who have barely averaged over 32 percent field goal shooting in its two losses. In Sunday's 64-54 loss to Old Dominion, the Bulldogs shot a woeful 31.5 percent from the field and missed 4-22 shots from three-point range.
SCSU made three less three pointers and shot 32.9 percent from the field in the 92-67 loss to the University of South Carolina, a performance Carter called overall the worst he's seen in 11 years as a head coach. The lack of a consistent three-point threat aside from guards Jessie Burton and Thomas Bookman was a problem Carter was advised of prior to his hiring and one his team is working to overcome.
"Anytime that you're not hitting shots, it's always a great concern," he said. "I thought we played great defense at Old Dominion, holding them to 39 percent which is good defense. But if shoot the balls as well as we defend it at 39 percent, we win the ballgame. With seven minutes in the game, it was a two-point ballgame. But we've been working on our shots and right now, we're rushing our shots and we've got to start hitting our perimeter shots."
Junior college transfer Jason Johnson did rebound from a quiet showing against USC with a team-high 13 points and seven rebounds. He and Chris Miller-Williams have been the Bulldogs' leading scorers the first two games to lead a frontcourt where Julius Carter and Jason Flagler are still rebounding from pre-season injuries.
Some of the offensive changes made prior to the season-opener have also had an effect on the Bulldogs, according to Carter. He believes the key right now is for the players to settle down and get in sync offensively to turn things around."
While SCSU struggled at Norfolk, the Dolphins opened the season Sunday at home with a 79-63 win over Savannah State. Lehmon Colbert scored a career-high 20 points, Ben Smith had 18 points, making 14-16 free throws, and nine assists and Marcus Allen added 11 points and nine rebounds.
Jacksonville has won all three previous meetings against SCSU, including last year's 87-74 victory, and is making its first visit to Orangeburg.
"This will be a really good test," head coach. The head coach (Cliff Warren) has done a great job turning that program around down there. This is his third year. I'm sure he's got most of the guys that he has recruited who are in the program right now. So, this will be good test for us. A real good test for us and a good home opener as well."
The SCSU/Jacksonville matchup is part of a doubleheader which opens at 5:30 p.m. with the Lady Bulldogs also seeking their first win of the season against in-state foe Winthrop University.
SCSU (0-1) got a career-high 22 points from Sophilla Hipps, but could not overcome 28 turnovers and going scoreless in the final 2:51 in a 58-55 loss to Mercer University last Friday.
Winthrop (2-1) is coming off a 63-54 overtime loss to Rice in the finals of the Winthrop Classic on Sunday. The Lady Eagles return all five starters from last year's 6-26 team.
This is the first of five contests within the Carolinas and Georgia for the Lady Bulldogs. Following tonight's contest, they travel to Conway to face Coastal Carolina on Tuesday and Savannah State on Nov. 24. After a Nov. 27 home game against Gardner-Webb, the Lady Bulldogs head to North Carolina on Dec. 1 to face Winston-Salem State before returning to Orangeburg to embark on a nine-game homestand.
WSSB 90.3 FM will carry tonight's doubleheader.
n T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by office phone at 533-5547 or by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com. Discuss this and other stories at TheTandD.com.