Men's Basketball Loses to UVA in Friday Season Opener, Falls to Navy on Sunday

Men's Basketball Head Coach Mike Gillian said he has one simple goal for his team this year, to just play hard with consistent effort. This past Friday, against a competitive University of Virginia (UVA) Cavalier team from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Lancers continued to fight all 40 minutes before falling 85-72.

The Lancers opened their 2009-10 season with two games this past weekend. On Friday night, they took on UVA at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va. Two days later on Sunday, the Lancers hit the court again for their home-opener in Willett Hall; yet fell short once again 79-76 to the visiting Navy.

In Friday's loss, Sophomore F/C Antwan Carter was a spark off the bench and led the Lancers with 18 points while collecting three steals as well as three rebounds. Standout redshirt-senior Dana Smith had a slow start to the season however, and could never really find a rhythm the entire game. Smith, who led the Lancers last season with 14.8 points per contest, totaled only five points, while shooting 2-10 from the floor and 0-3 from long range.

With little productivity from Smith, the Lancers needed a group effort to keep themselves in the game. Five Lancers finished in double figures including Senior F/C Billy Robinson who finished with 13 points while going 6-8 from the field. The Lancer's experience in the backcourt showed as well, as Senior guards E.J. Dawson and Kevin Swecker each tallied ten points while not turning the ball over once.

The game was a battle of runs. After closing the gap to four points with eight minutes left in the first half, the Cavaliers went on a dominating 22-6 run over the final four minutes, leaving the score 49-27 at the half. After being down 22 at the half, the resilient Lancers would battle back and cut the margin within ten several times throughout the second and final period.

One of the Lancers' biggest problems was not having an answer for Virginia's sophomore guard Sylven Landesberg. Last year's ACC rookie of the year had a game-high 23 points while bringing down six boards as well. Though the Lancers did manage to win the turnover margin 11-16, they had plenty of issues on the glass collecting rebounds. UVA out rebounded the Lancers 36-21, including several big offensive rebounds in the second half that led to second-chance points.

In Sunday's home-opening loss versus the Midshipmen of Navy, two of the Lancers' biggest offensive threats got things going in the right direction. Smith exploded for a double-double, scoring a game-high 22 while grabbing 11 rebounds in the process. Smith also recorded seven assists and four steals as well. In addition to Smith, one of Coach Gillian's new acquisitions, junior Aaron Mitchell, had a break-out game as well. Gillian hopes that Mitchell can replace much of the scoring. Ryan Bogan had a solid all-around game going 5-11 from the field for 16 points, while also notching five assists and five rebounds. During the game, Smith became the 17th player in school history to record 1,000 points, and later became only the fifth to record 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.

The Lancers led the game at the half 40-37, but couldn't close out the contest. With under 20 seconds to go, Smith made a lay-up to make the score 77-74, but Navy was clutch and went perfect from the line in the closing seconds. The Lancers have struggled from beyond the arc so far this season, and shot only 20 percent on Sunday.

"There are shots that haven't fallen that I know will fall in the future because I've seen them go in repeatedly in the past," said Gillian. "But overall I was very pleased with our effort in both games. Now we just have to take that effort and somehow turn it into performance.