As they prepare for the week's upcoming slate of games, both the University of Charleston and West Virginia State men's basketball teams will try to shore up different facets of their respective games. The Golden Eagles would like to score a few more points. The Yellow Jackets would like to hold their opponents to fewer.
Charleston enters today's 4 p.m. game against No. 5 Fairmont State at the Civic Center on a two-game skid. UC averaged just 61.5 points in losses to Wheeling Jesuit and No. 1 West Liberty.
WVSU heads into today's 4 p.m. game versus Shepherd at the Walker Convocation Center as losers of six of their last seven games. The Yellow Jackets' last two opponents, the Hilltoppers and Cardinals, each crossed the 100-point barrier versus State, averaging 113.5 against them.
The Golden Eagles (6-6, 3-3 Mountain East) looked like they had started to solve the offensive struggles they faced earlier in the season. In its four-game December winning streak, UC averaged 87.8 points and shot 53.8 percent from the floor. That average dipped by more than 26 points against WLU and WJU and Charleston shot 40.7 percent from the floor in those two games.
"It's just a matter of being consistent and being comfortable," UC coach Dwaine Osborne said.
Charleston could use a scoring boost with the Falcons coming to the Civic Center. Fairmont State (11-1, 5-1 MEC) sits second behind West Liberty and fifth overall in Division II averaging 94.6 points per game. The roster features Southern Mississippi transfer Matt Bingaya, who averages 18.9 points while shooting 62.4 percent from the floor.
While UC's scoring numbers dropped last week, Osborne could see the team has gotten more adept at the motion offense it installed in the offseason. Charleston started off with a flurry against West Liberty, making 6 of its first 10 shots, including four 3-pointers.
"We hit a bunch of shots because we were wide open and we made good reads on offense," Osborne said. "We were way better [against West Liberty] in our offense, in the motion stuff, making the reads. That was good to see."
UC cooled off as the game progressed. After that 6-for-10 start, the Golden Eagles made just 5 of 18 shots for the rest of the half. That's where Osborne's calls for consistency are born. The players are getting better at finding good looks at the basket. Now they just need to make the attempts they get.
"I feel like, as a coach, my job is to help them get open shots, but they've got to make shots," Osborne said. "We talked about that. My job is to try to put you into a position to get shots in areas where you can score. Your job is to work on that and make those shots. We just have to keep plugging away at it."
Only Urbana, at 91.3 points allowed per game, gives up more points than the Yellow Jackets (4-7, 2-4 MEC), who allow 90.5 per game.
"We need to defend better and rebound better," State coach Bryan Poore said. "We're close in the rebounding stats at times, but we give up crucial ones that continue a run or something like that. We need to get tougher and be more disciplined."
The Yellow Jackets aren't getting help in that department from a short bench. Senior forward Ron Whaley and junior guards Kenny Strong and Robert Fomby have missed State's last three games. The trio is suspended for team rule violations and, while Poore wouldn't give a definitive timetable for their return, he said they'd be back on the court soon.
Fomby - WVSU's second-leading scorer (14.4 points per game) and leading rebounder (7.0 per game) - is an especially tough loss, but the three combined to start all but one of the games they've played and average at least 19.3 minutes per game.
Shepherd (7-5, 2-4 MEC) sits fifth in the Mountain East at 86.2 points per game and has won its last two, including a victory over Concord on Jan. 4. Steffen Davis leads the Rams with 17.3 points per game, while Skyler Roman and Naim Muhammad combine to average 9.25 assists.
West Virginia State's mission against the Rams will be to eliminate the opponents' scoring runs that turn tight games into runaways. Against West Liberty, the Yellow Jackets trailed by just seven points with 8:03 left in the first half, but fell behind by as many as 21 before halftime. Against Jesuit, State led 48-46 with 17:32 left in the game, but the Cardinals sprinted away on a 21-0 run after that.
"You've got to be able to get the crucial stop at the right time in the right spot of the game," Poore said, "to end runs or start runs. And that's what we've got to get better at."