Men's Basketball Looking for Winning Season
Lonzo Saunders
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Sports
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The Cougars lost in the Regional Championship 89-95 in double overtime to the Atlanta Christian College Chargers. The Cougars needed to win the South Regional Tournament to make it to the NCCAA National Tournament. Since the Cougars failed to win their season, they finished without advancing to the NCCAA Nationals.
The 2008-2009 Cougars come into this season with nine players returning from last year's basketball team, including all the players who received end-of-the-season awards from either the South Region Committee or National Committee.
The players who received awards were Troy Hadlock, All-Freshman, South Region All-Tournament Team; Taylor Jenson, All-Freshman; Jeremy Ham, South Region Honorable Mention; and Lonzo Saunders, South Region 1st Team and All-American Honorable Mention.
The Cougars lost Larry Bache, Sam Greeley, and Evin Hamm to graduation. The Cougars have replaced their losses with incredible assets on this year's roster. Terrance Fisher, Brian Copeland, Ryan Butler, Austin McCoy, Jon Wiedmann, and Jon McLanahan will look to be key contributors to a team that has already developed a good chemistry on the court.
The Cougars started in September with conditioning, to prepare for the 2008-2009 season, which features great teams from the NCAA division 2, NAIA division 2, NCCAA division 1, and the very physical NCCAA South Region. The Cougars travel to face NCAA Florida Tech on November 18 at 7 p.m.
The Cougars travel to face NAIA nationally ranked Warner Southern on November 21 at 7 p.m. In the past two seasons, Warner Southern has won against the Cougars in their series. The Cougars will continue their rivalry against Southeastern University and Pensacola Christian College.
The Cougars travel to Southeastern on December 2 and play host on January 27, 2009. The Cougars will play host against their other rival Pensacola Christian on January 27, 2009, at 7 p.m. The team also will travel to Pensacola on January 31, 2009 for a 7:30 p.m. game.
New rival Wesley College is an added match on the schedule. The Cougars face Wesley at home on December 5 at 7 p.m., then travel to Wesley on February 2, 2009, at 7 p.m. The number one team in the nation in the NCCAA, Wesley was upset by the Cougars in the South Regional Semi-Final. Wesley never recovered from that loss, as they were eliminated in two games in the nationals, and did not win in the nationals.
Although the Cougars have a difficult season ahead, they will work hard before the first game on October 30 against Tampa Swish, an over-30s men's basketball team. They have a chance of becoming South Region Champions, which the Cougars have been unable to do since 2003.
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