Men's Basketball Semester Recap | December 14, 2017
At the halfway point of the ACAC Men's Basketball season, the Lakeland Rustlers sit in first place in the North Division with a 9-3 record. The team swept King's in the opening weekend before splitting games the next two weekends against Grande Prairie and NAIT. The Rustlers would then go on to win five of their next six games, with their one loss coming to the Keyano Huskies in mid-November. With their success, the team has found themselves ranked nationally, currently at #13 heading into the semester break.
The Rustlers are averaging 82.4 points per game (ppg) and give up an average of 74 ppg halfway through the season. Leading the Rustlers are fourth year guard Terrell Murdaugh, fourth year forward Prentice Gardner and third year forward Artavis Holiday, all of whom are averaging 15 ppg. Holiday also leads the Rustlers in rebounding, averaging 9.6 per game, while third year guard Ricardo Joseph adds an average of 5.5 per game.
Rustlers Head Coach Sheray Thomas was pleased with the position his team put themselves in heading into the second semester.
"The first semester was decent," Thomas said, "we put ourselves in a good position, but it is another season in the second half. Everything is tight in the North, and anything could happen, so we need to maintain our composure to hold our spot. Defensive has been a big key to our success. When we bring that intensity and focus, we are a good team. When we don't, and we rely on shooting, then we are just average. Heading into the second semester, we need to keep our focus and work on the little things like defensive rotations, sharing the ball and just playing strong at all times. Everyone can contribute, so that makes us a threat, we just need to make sure we are out there playing hard, not just being happy to be out running up and down the court.
The Rustlers will play Ambrose College on January 5th in an exhibition game, but otherwise just plan to practice hard and work on their game before getting back into the grind of the second semester.
The regular season for the Rustlers resumes for the Rustlers January 19th and 20th when the team heads to Fort McMurray to take on the Huskies. The Rustlers will return home to face the Grande Prairie Wolves January 26th and 27th.