After coming off their first loss against UMass Amherst on Monday, Nov. 4, The University of New Hampshire men’s basketball team brought the energy to their home court and successfully pulled out their first win of the season with a 99-69 win against the UMASS Boston Beacons. The arena was packed full of energy and the anticipation for a good performance was undoubtedly met.
UMass Boston won the tipoff but that didn’t stop the Wildcats from leading the first half of the game. UNH came out in a man-to-man defense and stayed that way for the majority of the game. The Wildcats were in a bit of foul trouble in the first half due to them exceeding five team fouls. This resulted in the Beacons getting to the line frequently. By the second half, the Wildcats were able to keep their team fouls under control and continue to keep the lead against the Beacons.
By the second half of the game, the UMass Boston Beacons were doing a full-court press to try and slow the scoring of the UNH Wildcats, but that didn’t put a cap on Anthony McComb’s streak of threes. Junior, Rex Sunderland, was a top-three leading scorer who contributed 13 points and was one of the main point guards throughout the game. Junior, Sami Pissis, was essential to UNH’s scoring and assisted in two major plays of the game. One was an alley-oop to sophomore Dylan Saunders, who laid the basketball right into the hoop. The other was a fan favorite, where Pissis threw a deep pass to freshman Khalil Badru for a dunk.
Top scorer Anthony McComb said, “We finished the game, we could have done a lot of things better, but it’s a whole new team, so we are still learning how to play together. As long as we keep continuing to get better and staying consistent it will be good for us.”
Coming into his second season of coaching at the University of New Hampshire, Coach Nathan Davis said, “ The main goal for this season is to compete and win the league. I thought we did some good things today. We have 11 new players and two guys out, so we are trying to get people worked in. We have a lot to work on. We have to get into better shape and condition so we can play through some tire and we have to take better care of the ball and we have to defend and transition better.”
This is only the second game the UNH Wildcats have played, so they are still shaking off the nerves and trying to get into their groove. The team has 11 new players and two out on injury so the main obstacle is the team trying to get used to all playing together as a unit. As this is just the start of a long season ahead we await what comes next. The UNH Wildcats face the UConn Huskies at UConn this Saturday, Nov. 9.
